Plant  Structures. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
^     March,  19 18. 
PLANT  STRUCTURES  AND  CONNECTED  PROBLEMS. 
John  Uri  Lloyd,  Phar.M.,  Cincinnati,  Ohio. 
The  man  who  believes  that  plant  remedial  agents  will  ever 
become  secondary  in  human  or  other  life,  is  the  man  who,  in  the 
opinion  of  this  writer,  is  either  very  one-sided  in  thought,  or  of 
small  experience.  Let  us  not  underrate  the  value  of  all  that  comes 
through  inventions  due  to  human  ingenuity,  but  let  us  not  mistake. 
None  of  these  inventions  would  have  been  possible  but  for  vegeta- 
tion— plant  life.  Let  us  fully  credit  whoever  accomplishes  in  any 
direction  where  accomplishment  has  been  made,  whether  in  manipu- 
lative alterations  or  additions  to  life's  opportunity,  but  let  us  not 
for  one  moment  accept  that  man  is  independent  of  vegetation. 
Listen !  But  for  vegetation,  neither  man  nor  animal,  of  what- 
ever kind,  could  ever  have  existed  or  had  its  being.  From  the  germ 
of  the  spark  of  life  to  the  fullest  utilization  of  life's  opportunities, — 
all,  all  comes  from  vegetation.  No  food  that  could  for  even  a 
moderate  length  of  time  support  a  human  being,  could  be  made  arti- 
ficially by  any  method  of  man's  ignenuity,  without  drawing  from 
the  great  storehouse  of  nature,  vegetation.  Be  it  serum  of  the 
horse  or  juice  of  the  turtle,  be  it  vaccine  of  the  cow  or  any  product 
of  animal  economy,  neither  could  be  possible  but  for  vegetation. 
Listen !  The  muscle  of  the  creature  that  is  used  as  food,  the 
fat  of  the  creature  that  is  used  as  food,  the  juice,  the  blood,  the 
serums  that  are  parts  of  food,  are  but  materials  transferred  from 
vegetation  to  some  new  form,  and  when  consumed  as  food  by  other 
animals,  they  become  but  another  transformation  in  the  life  and 
substance  that  comes  from  the  growing  plant. 
Not  far  distant  is  the  flesh  of  the  wild  goose  from  the  bacteria 
of  the  water  that  nourishes  the  vegetation  that  grows  in  the  water, 
upon  which  the  wild  goose  lives.  The  plankton  jelly  present  in  all 
water,  and  on  which  the  small  fish  live,  is  not  very  far  separated 
from  the  big  fish  that  eats  the  small  fish  that  has  lived  on  the 
plankton,  and  when  the  human  being  enjoys  the  savory  baked  fish 
that  lived  on  the  small  fish  that  lived  on  the  plankton,  he  should 
credit  this  unseen  plankton,  that  form  of  water  vegetation,  trans- 
parent as  glass,  ever-present  in  water,  capable  of  being  collected 
as  a  food  by  small  fish  and  other  water  creatures. 
