INTRODUCTION. 
XXXV11 
About a generation ago, the use of plants and herbs as 
remedial agents was greatly discredited. The late Sir Thomas 
Lauder Brunton drew an analogy between the weapons and tools 
employed in art or warfare, and the implements used by man in 
the treatment of disease in different ages. It is customary to 
divide the progress of civilization into four stages, charact- 
erized by the nature of the weapons employed. “ In the first or 
Paleolithic age, man employed weapons or tools of flint roughly 
chipped into shape and unpolished. In the next or Neolithic age, 
the implements consisted of stone, but they were polished. The 
next age is characterized by the employment of bronze as a 
material, and the fourth and highest stage by the employment of 
iron. * * !ii * In the same way, we may recognise four stages in 
the development of the' implements in the treatment of disease. 
In the first stage crude drugs were employed, prepared in the 
roughest manner, such as powdered Cinchona or metallic 
antimony. In the next stage, these were converted into more 
active and more manageable forms, such as extracts or solutions, 
watery or alcoholic. In the third stage, the pure active principles, 
separated from the crude drugs, were employed, e.g., morphine 
and quinine. In the fourth stage, instead of attempting to 
for food on wild animals captured in the chase, to watch them closely so as 
to know their habits. * * 
“ That a good deal of man’s medicinal knowledge arose accidentally in his 
efforts to extend the range of his food supply is suggested by the prominent 
place occupied by food — stuffs in primitive pharmacy 0 ’. 
The ancient Hindus should be given the credit for cultivating wbat is now 
called “ Ethno-botany". In Bulletin 55 of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 
it is said : — 
“ Ethnobotany is virtually a new field of research, a field which, if investi- 
gated thoroughly and systematically will yield results of great value to the 
ethnologist and incidentally also to the botanist. * * * 
Ethnobotanical research is concerned with several important questions : — 
(a) What are primitive ideas and conceptions of plant life ? (b) What are the 
effects of a given plant environment on the lives, customs, religion, thoughts 
and everyday practical affairs of the people studied ? (C) What use do they 
make of the plants about them for food, for medicine, for material culture, 
for ceremonial purposes ? (d) What is the extent of their knowledge of the 
parts, functions, and activities of plants ? (e) Into what categories are plant 
names and words that deal with plants grouped in the language of the people 
studied, and what can be learned concerning the working of the folkmind by 
the study of these names ? 
Ethnobotany will become a more important subject when its study has 
progressed to a point where results can be studied comparatively. 
A prime necessity is a good native informant ; indeed.it is better to have 
several informants, preferably older men or women. " 
What a pity that hardly any attention is paid to this subject in modern 
India. 
