Ixii INTRODUCTION. 



There is no work treating of the indigenous drugs of Assam, 

 Orissa, or of Behar (excepting Irvine's short account of the 

 Materia Medica of Patna, published in 1848).. Notices of some 

 of the medicinal plants and indigenous drugs of Assam 

 and Orissa are to be found in the Gazetteer volumes of those 

 provinces. 



There have been a host of medical men to work out the 

 medicinal plants and indigenous drugs of Madras. In the early 

 days of the East India Company, Madras, the so-called benighted 

 Presidency of to-day, attracted more scientific and medical men 

 than any other part of India. It was on the Madras side that 

 most of the illustrated works on Indian Botany were prepared. 

 Rheede's " Hortus Malabarica," Roxburgh's " Coromandel 

 Plants," Wight's " Icones," Beddome's " Flora Sylvatica" were 

 all prepared by men who labored in that Presidency. Ainslie's 

 " Materia Medica of Hindustan " published in 1813, and " Materia 

 Indica " published in 1826, are still works of reference on the 

 indigenous drugs of Madras. Waring was another authority on 

 the Madras indigenous drugs. His labors have been embodied 

 in the Pharmacopoeia of India. 



Bidie's "Paris Exhibition Catalogue of Raw Products of 

 Southern India " is a useful publication on the indigenous 

 drugs of Madras. In the Madras Quarterly and Monthly 

 Journal of Medical Science, there are several papers from his 

 pen on the subject of indigenous drugs. 



Moodeen Sheriff will always occupy a prominent place 

 amongst the workers on the subject of indigenous drugs. His 

 Supplement to the Pharmacopoeia of India established his repu- 

 tation as a pharmaceutist of no mean order. His posthumous 

 work on the " Materia Medica of Madras," has brought our in- 

 formation on some of the indigenous drugs of that Presidency 

 up to date. It is unfortunate, however, that this work did not 

 receive the last finishing touch of the author. 



The indigenous drugs of Bombay, though neglected for a 

 long time, have recently received proper attention. Dalzell and 

 Gibson's " Bombay Flora," published in 1861, paved the way 

 to the better study of the subject. Bird wood's " Vegetable 



