INTRODUCTION. H 



the testimony of experience, — a testimony no stronger than that 

 which has supported scores of other agents eventually discarded. 

 If the indications, given by the pharmacological examination of 

 a drug, are opposed to experience in its favour, the latter must 

 almost certainly be at fault."* 



But clinical experiences and observations of eminent physi- 

 cians on the actions of a drug are as much entitled to respect and 

 consideration as its pharmacological examination. So the view of 

 the writer quoted above does not seem to us to be sound. 



The modern method of therapeutical investigation is, first, 

 to observe the action of a drug on a healthy animal, and then to 

 make the results applicable to pathological states. The ancients 

 recognised only one mode of studying the effects of a remedy, 

 and that was by the simple observation of effects produced by 

 drugs when administered in disease. This clinical observation 

 of the action of remedies has been productive of some good, but 

 it is questionable if much progress was effected so long as this 

 method alone was employed. Towards the beginning of the 

 nineteenth century, the necessity for ascertaining the actions of 

 remedies by experiments on animals, was recognised by Bichat, 

 Majendie, and others. This modern method of therapeutical 

 research promises a great success. Working on this line, Lauder 

 Brunton was able to use with success nitrite of amyl in angina 

 pectoris. Here a correct application of a known action in a drug 

 was made serviceable in the very first trial. The pharmacological 

 experiments and clinical observations will thus settle the claims 

 of Indian drugs on our attention. 



III. 



The Vedic Aryans were acquainted with about a hundred 

 medicinal plants. When a king appoints a Purohita, he repeats 

 a prayer in which he entreats that all the herbs of a hundred 

 kinds over which King Soma rules will grant him uninterrupted 

 happiness. 



From the works of Oharaka and Sushruta we learn that the 



Indo-Aryans were acquainted with a large number of medicinal 



* Dr. D. J, Leech in Vol. I of Allbutt's System of Medicine. London, 1896. 



