MONTHLY. 
Vol. XI. 
COLOMBO, MAY 2nd, 1892. 
[No. 11 
DICTIONARY OF MATERIA MEDICA.- 
N B of the characteristics of 
a true-born Briton is said to 
be an innatp love of physic. 
Whether this be true or not, 
it is certain that a large pro- 
portion of the British public 
are habitual medicine- con- 
sumers. Excluding those who have no choice in 
the, ma,tter, ai)d who passively , swallQW. whatever is 
prescribed for them, a good many it is well-known 
are only too fond of experimenting on themselves 
without leave or license from any orthodox authority, 
especially since the honioeopathic craze has ren- 
dered amateur doctoring so easy. They believe only 
too readily every puffing advertisement of every patent 
"certain cure" if it be only judiciously backed up 
by pretended, or, it may be, genuine testimonials 
from patients who had been in extreviis, or had gone 
the round of the faculty without experiencing, any 
benefit, or had been bedridden for 20 years, &c. &c. ; 
and the very victims who are thus deluded become 
unwittingly the baits with which new traps are set 
for the unwary. Only let two or three of the leading 
members in a community be persuaded — it 
does not matter by what means — to use a 
quack drug, and its success thereafter, as 
regards the general public, is only a matter of time. 
■ it is hot quite so difficult a thing as some 
Now 
believe to "catch your hare," to secure a few promt 
nent men, in order to puff a quack article into 
notoriety. The ignorance shown by so-called edu- 
cated men in such simple matters as the structure 
or functions of their internal organs, the laws of 
health and diaeasp, the processes by which morbid 
conditions are overcome, the mode in which medi- 
cines act in aiding, altering, or counteracting these 
processes, is so extreme, that the quack who is only 
too cognizant of this fact, as well as of the child- 
like credulity which most men eyiuce in matters 
with whifh they are not fanriliar, is ready to take 
advantage of such ignorance and simple faitli, by 
clothmg his appeals to their vanity and self-conceit, 
or it may be to their avarice and self-interest, in 
a tissue of scientific jargon and cunningly disguised 
fallacies, which seldom fails in its object. It is 
so pleasant to think that one can at a bound 
scale the heights of medical luiowledge which the 
orthO(^ox disciples of .a^sculapius have reached 
' Diotionnry at Materia Medi ca and Therapeutic?. A 
RcHUoif of 11)6 Action uud Dpses ,.t uU OITlcliial and Nono- 
omcuial nruRH, Willi thoir Suieiitific, Oommon and Native 
naraos ami SynnnyniH. and in many inst.-mcos Uunr 
Froiifh, Uorrauii and Iiulinii KiiuivalenlH. lly C Henri 
I,oouard A. M., M. i>.. Hiul Thomas Christy, F. L.S., oto. 
London: Ua.lhtVo.Tiudiil nnd Cox, publ.shora, JO and 21. 
Kiu« Willium Sti-oet, Stvuud, LouduQ 18M. 
only after a toilsome life-long journey, or per- 
adventure have not reached at all. So pleasant, 
for instance, to correct any indiscretion one may 
have been guilty of in diet or drink, and to stave off 
the symptoms of a congested liver, or the warnings 
of an impending fit of rheumatism or 'gout, by a 
dose of Cockle's Pills or Mother Sairey Gamp'a 
Syrup, vinfettered by the vexatious restrictions on 
one's favourite tipple which the ordinary medical 
attendant imposes as a rule when he assumes charge 
of the case. And besides there is no question but 
that some of these quack remedies do sometimes benefit 
some patients. Most of these infallible cures have 
an aperient action ; and there are few diseases which 
are not relieved at some stage by aperient medicine 
whatever its composition. Others again get well 
while using these remedies, and even in spite of them, 
thanks to the wonderful self- reparative, self-restorative 
powers of nature. But as there is no fallacy which 
so easily imposes on the lay mind — or for that 
matter on tne professional mind when untrained to 
logical reasoning — as the pout hoc ergo propter hoc 
fallacy, the cure is attributed to the remedy last 
used, and thus new advocates are gained to 
plead in its favour, new testimonials made 
available to puff it into still further noto- 
riety. Populus vidt decejn et decipiatur. The 
public bud themselves to deception only too readily. 
Hence the enormous fortunes made by men like 
Holloway, Morison, &c. Hence too the astounding 
fact that no less than £225,701 was received for 
stamps on patent medicines alone last year by the In- 
land Revenue authorities ; an amount which, consider- 
ing that the stamp on a shilling bottle or box of medicine 
is only three-halfpence, represents some millions of 
bottles annually sold to the public in the United 
Kingdom only. 
But the craving for medicines is not confined to 
the British public. It exists everywhere, and indeed 
seems instinctive with all races. Drugs of some 
kind seem to have been a necessity from all time- 
as imperative almost as food. Rhubarb is mentioned 
in a Chinese book 2,700 li.c. and a fragment of a 
cuneiform Babylonian inscription deciphered by J. 
Halevy (Records of the Past, Vol. XL p. 159, London, 
1878) shows that at least a thousand years before the 
time of Moses and the first recorded notice on the sub- 
ject of medicine in the Bible (Exodus xxx, 25,35) 
the Babyloniaps or rather the Accadians had already 
attained a considerable amount of pharmaceutical 
knowledge. 
One would have to go very far back indeed into the 
history of the past to trace the origin of physic. 
Most probably it was instinctive (hence the super- 
natural origin ascribed to it by the earliest nations), 
just as it is at the present day among the lower 
animals. Dogs it is well-known have their hereditary 
knowledge of herbals. In most folklore stories 
various animals are believed to have a special know- 
ledge of remedies for various diseases and injuries— 
especially antidotes for poisons, &c. It is by imitat- 
ing tlicm perhaps that m.an gradually came to 
acquire a knowledge of the medicinal virtues of various 
plants. Chance and observation and experiments 
added to the ori^^inal stock from time to time, wliilo 
with the ostcusion of commerce and international 
