6 
The  American  Materia  Medica. 
/Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
|    January,  1910. 
was  not  alone  in  the  belief  in  evil  spirits  or  in  devils  that  afflicted 
people  with  diseases  that  needs  be  conjured  and  potioned  out.  Nor 
is  he  yet  deserted. 
Let  us  not  be  surprised  that  at  that  date  the  trend  of  thought 
of  many  and  the  personal  belief  of  not  a  few  was  to  the  effect  that, 
in  nature's  store-house,  ready  for  the  use  of  man,  were  locked 
remedial  agents  antagonistic  to  every  disease  which  sin-laden  man 
had  contracted  or  inherited.  It  was  an  oft-repeated  maxim,  that  yet 
lingers,  that  God  had  placed  in  every  country  remedial  agents  to 
care  for  diseased  mankind  in  that  country.  Nor  is  this,  as  already 
indicated,  foreign  to  the  belief  of  some  to-day. 
Let  it  not  be  accepted,  however,  that  all  men  at  that  date  were 
imbued  with  or  even  tinctured  by  this  theological  inheritance  or 
professional  conception.  On  the  contrary,  many  talented  investi- 
gators of  what  was  known  then  as,  materia  medica  looked  upon 
disease,  as  well  as  upon  remedial  agents,  in  quite  a  different  manner. 
They  believed,  it  is  true,  that  nature  possessed  secret  wealths  that 
could  be  utilized  by  man  for  man's  benefit  (often  through  torture  of 
the  flesh),  but  which,  yet,  were  no  more  created  for  man  than  that 
man  was  created  for  the  purpose  of  being  attacked  by  diseases  or 
persecuted  by  evil  spirits. 
Thus  came  into  play  in  the  incipiency  of  the  early  American 
materia  medica  a  blending  of  the  intensely  religious,  the  profession- 
ally dogmatic,  and  the  hopefully  scientific,  as  well  as  the  ever-present 
commercially  ambitious,  all  seeking  alike  the  secrets  that  reposed 
in  the  natural  products  of  the  new  world. 
And  yet  another  vital  factor  in  the  primitive  development  of  the 
American  materia  medica  must  not  be  overlooked.  In  those  days, 
authoritative  remedial  agents  of  European  pharmacy  were  difficult 
to  obtain.  This  necessitated  the  discovery  of  agents  that  would 
parallel  the  action  of  the  old-time  remedies.  Emetics,  cathartics, 
vesicants,  anthelmintics,  and  such  were  seemingly  as  necessary  to 
man's  existence  as  food.  The  pioneers  were  versed  in  domestic 
medicine,  and  many  were  familiar  with  European  works  on  the 
subject.  They  felt  compelled  to  seek  for  substances  possessed  of 
qualities  similar  to  those  commended  by  such  authors  as  Lewis, 
Culpepper,  and  Quincy.1    Nor  was  this  all.    The  marvellous  stones 
Selecting  therefrom  too  often  the  substances  that  produced  systemic 
shock.  Let  it  not  be  forgotten  that  the  European  herbalists  attempted  to 
utilize  about  every  plant  that  grew. 
