193 
MALAY DRUGS. 
In 1894 I read before a meeting of the Medical Society a paper 
in the Malay Materia Medic a, which was published in the journal 
of that Society. A comparatively small number of copies were 
printed and the paper is now practically unprocurable, I have 
therefore thought well to reproduce it in main part adding addi- 
tional information on the drugs used by the Malays as far as I 
have been able to collect information on them. 
The difficulty of studying the locally used drugs lies largely in 
the fact that they are imported from the forests to the shops ] 
often in the form of chips of wood, twigs, or roots, quite uniden- 
tifiable, and though the Native name is often of much use, yet one 
can never be quite sure even that that is used correctly by the 
drug-seller. In the villages one often can get hold of a man who 
really knows the plants which are used, but frequently I have 
found no one in the place who is acquainted with the Native 
medicines. There is a tendency too for this lore to die out as 
European medicines are now more universally procurable at the 
various dispensaries now scattered over the Peninsula. The old 
herbalist’s occupation dwindles away and soon the knowledge is 
lost. This has happened in all countries where civilization and 
scientific medicine have invaded the country districts. 
The best herbalists are the Jakuns and the Sakais who have to 
depend on the forests for their medicine as well as their food, and 
who also used to trade in the drugs valued by the Malays and 
Chinese. 
The country Malay’s knowledge of human physiology and ana- 
tomy is naturally very limited and his nosology almost as scanty. 
He is acquainted with conspicuous and easily determined diseases 
such as dysentery and small-pox. and seems to know' something 
about these ailments, but obscurer diseases as heart di<w»aoo, 
hysteria and till it was common, consumption were always referred 
to witchcraft or the action of devils, and treated as such. 
Indeed in examining the Malay pharmacopoeia one cannot 
help being struck with its resemblance to that of England five 
centuries ago. We have the uses of various portions of animals 
such as the Slow Loris, Kangkong ( Nyctipithecus ) shown to be 
worthless as drugs long ago. We have the same ideas that this 
or that plant with the addition of rose water or pepper will serve 
for any illness that may occur. We have the sacred herbs brought 
from Mecca, of which the most popular is the Rose of Jericho 
{ Anastasia hierochuntica ) which being brought from Mecca as a 
flower from Eve’s grave is supposed to have marvelous properties. 
Another popular remedy from Mecca is Water from the well of 
vze m, a well at which probably many niilllous pf peo pie 
with flora and ofl r have bathed for genera - 
Betties oiLthis fiitny liquid % * brought back by pilgrim* 
TBHpe me iicines. 
The Rose of Jericho is immersed- in w f ater and when it expands 
