lxviii INTRODUCTION. 



or to extinction, but to other conditions, which tend to prevent 

 identification at the time of collection." This shows also the 

 necessity of rational cultivation, and hence of medicinal farms.* 



Many have been disappointed from the use of indigenous 

 drugs for which the cause is not far to seek. A writer in the 

 Calcutta Review for 1869 (p : 199) said : — 



" The distrust of bazar medicines is, we are convinced, well 

 warranted by facts. In many cases bazar medicines are simple 

 trash. Let any one only look at the system of storage followed 

 in a paiisaris shop, and one very evident reason of this will be 

 apparent. His wares are of all degrees of staleness, the stock 

 of many of them inherited from his father or grandfather and 

 long ago inert. Stoppered bottles are things unknown, and all 

 substances are alike stowed in bags or earthen vessels, exposed 

 to every variation of the atmosphere in respect of heat and moist- 

 ure, and to the attack of every kind of insect. * * * Many are 

 adulterated, and as a matter of course, none are labelled." 



The above also shows the necessity of medicinal farms and 

 the establishment of depots for the supply of reliable prepa- 

 rations of indigenous drugs. 



It is the bounden duty of educated Indians to do all that lies 

 in their power for the proper study of Indian medicinal plants 

 and drugs. In 1879, the Calcutta Review wrote : — 



1 The resuscitation of Indian medical science is a noble and 

 useful work which ought to be performed by educated Hin- 

 doos. * * It is perfectly true that Indian drugs ought to 

 be largely studied and used by medical practitioners in this 

 country. European medical men fully admit this truth and some 

 of them have labored earnestly and assiduously to accomplish 

 this object. But it is easy to understand that the efforts of 

 foreigners must be necessarily imperfect and unproductive of 

 adequate results. Upon educated Indian members of the pro- 

 fession, therefore, devolves this great and solemn duty, for it is 

 they alone who can discharge it adequately and well. * * In 

 India the foreign and the indigenous systems ought to be read 

 together if full benefit is to be derived from either." 

 B. D. BASIL 



* A few enterprising Ayurvedic practitioners of Calcutta have established 

 such farms in the neighbourhood of that city. But these are on small scale. 



