XXXVI 
INTRODUCTION. 
frame is liable, much of the knowledge in regard to it is exact, 
the outcome of intelligent observation and enquiry, • * ” 
It may be that much of the knowledge of plants, once 
possessed by the ancestors of the present aborigines, has become 
lost to the world owing to their ignorance of the art of writing. 6 ' 
But we should not treat with contempt the knowledge of 
herbs possessed by aborigines. There can be little doubt that 
their “ medicine men ” possess a remarkably accurate knowledge 
of the medical uses of the plants around them. We should 
remember that they have taught us the uses of some of our 
most important drugs. It is to them that we are indebted 
for our knowledge of Cinchona in malaria, Digitalis, Strophan- 
thus and Physiostigma in heart diseases, and of Quassia as 
a bitter tonic. We cannot, therefore, sufficiently admire the 
practical wisdom of the ancient Hindus when they enjoined on 
the votaries of the healing art the penetration forests and the 
climbing of mountains to examine the qualities and properties of 
the medicines in their natural situations, and gather information 
regarding them from hunters and shepherds who may have had 
opportunities of witnessing their effects, f 
* Writing of America one botanist says that ‘.‘when our forefathers came to 
this country they found the natives in possession of much medical knowledge 
of plants. Having no remedies prepared by scientific skill, the Indians were 
led, by necessity, to the use of those which nature afforded . them ; and, by 
experience and observation, they had arrived at many valuable conclusions 
as to the qualities of plants. Their mode of life, leading them to penetrate 
the shades of the forest, and to climb the mountain precipices, naturally 
associated them much with the vegetable world. The Indian woman, the 
patient sharer in these excursions, was led to look for such plants as she 
might use for the diseases of her family. Each new and curious plant, though 
not viewed by her with the eye of a botanist, was regarded with scrutinizing 
attention : the colour, taste, and smell were carefully remarked, as indications 
of its properties. But the discoveries and observations of the Indians have 
perished with themselves ; having had no system for the classification or 
description of plants, nor any written language by which such a system 
might have been conveyed to others, no other vestige remains than nncertain 
tradition of their knowledge of the medicinal qualities of plants,” 
■f That much of the knowledge of medicinal plants by the primitive man was 
obtained from hunters and shepherds is evident from what Dr. Raymond 
Crawford, M. A., M D., (Oxon), Physician to King’s College Hospital, London 
said in his presidential address delivered before the section of the History 
of Medicine, reported in the Lancet from which it has been reproduced in 
in the Scientific American Supplement of April 14 and 21, 1917. 
“ Man, doubtless, will have acquired much of his knowledge of the 
nutritive and medicinal value of plants by the same methed as the lower 
animals, by experience. Like them, too, he will have profited by imitation, 
and imitation embracing his observation of the habits of the lower animals. 
It must have been of immense importance to man, when he depended largely 
