i68 
Lands  Where  Drugs  Grow. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm^ 
April,  1900. 
prepared  under  varying  conditions.  I  have  also  attempted  to 
observe  and  record  the  structural  changes  that  may  take  place 
during  the  manipulations  for  the  market  by  examining  and  com- 
paring the  cellular  constituents  of  a  specimen  freshly  cut  from  a 
growing  plant  with  those  of  a  specimen  of  the  same  plant  dried 
under  different  conditions. 
I  can  state  that  there  are  observable  differences ;  their  importance 
or  meaning  I  will  not  attempt  to  interpret.  Those  who  manipulate 
the  same  drug  repeatedly  know  that  great  variations  are  found  in 
different  lots  as  regards  facility  of  extraction,  consistency  of 
extract  and  other  physical  characteristics.  Manufacturing  labora- 
tories will  oftentimes  make  purchases  only  after  a  trial  of  a  large 
sample  as  to  "  workable  properties;"  that  is  to  say,  the  character 
of  the  extractive,  the  condition  of  the  alkaloids,  the  ease  of  sepa- 
ration may  count  for  as  much  or  more  than  the  sum  of  alkaloidal 
constituents.  These  workable  properties  at  least  seem  to  me  capa- 
ble of  being  controlled  by  the  methods  of  preparation  followed  in 
the  field. 
The  variations  in  vegetable  drugs  arising  from  differences  of  soil 
and  climate,  and  of  methods  of  cultivation,  likewise  certain  observed 
facts  touching  specified  plants,  must  be  left  for  further  study.  I 
desire,  however,  to  call  attention  to  the  recorded  observations  as  to 
the  differences  as  to  physiological  action  between  the  undried  and 
the  dried  plant. 
Note. — As  to  the  belladonna  plant.  I  have  records  of  cases  of 
poisoning  by  the  green  plant,  taken  by  competent  observers  at  the 
place  of  growth,  which  clearly  show  marked  differences  of  action 
as  compared  with  the  recorded  effects  of  the  dried  plant.  These 
differences  in  physiological  action  are  possibly  traceable  in  a  meas- 
ure to  causes  which  I  have  here  noted.  Incidentally,  these  con- 
ditions emphasize  the  necessity  for  standardization,  and  at  the  same 
time  reveal  some  of  the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  realizing  it. 
My  observations  tend  to  show  that  at  the  present  time  we  seem 
dependent  upon  haphazard  sources  for  a  large  part  of  our  supplies 
of  crude  drugs;  that  the  commercial  value,  physiological  action 
and  therapeutic  value  of  a  drug  may  depend  quite  largely  upon  the 
man  who  removes  it  from  the  soil;  that  in  drug  culture  "the  man 
with  the  hoe"  and  the  man  with  the  sickle  are  quite  as  important 
as  the  man  behind  the  percolator,  each  in  a  measure  holding  the 
life  of  the  patient  and  the  success  of  the  physician  in  their  hands. 
