864  Growing  Medicinal  Plants  in  America.  (Am-  J°ur-  P'  ^ 
Dec,  191! 
GROWING  MEDICINAL  PLANTS  IN  AMERICA.1 
By  Allerton  S.  Cushman,  Ph.D., 
LIEUTENANT  COLONEL,  ORDINANCE  DEPARTMENT,  N.  A. 
FORMERLY  DIRECTOR,  THE  INSTITUTE  OF  INDUSTRIAL  RESEARCH,  WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 
MEMBER  OF  THE  INSTITUTE. 
Modern  warfare  may  be  roughly  divided  into  two  distinct 
phases :  one  is  destructive  and  the  other  reconstructive.  There 
are  no  longer  crucial  battles  which  decide  the  issue  of  war  as  at 
Waterloo  or  Gettysburg,  but  there  is  instead  one  protracted  and  un- 
ceasing effort  to  destroy  the  enemy's  life  and  property  on  the 
largest  scale  possible.  Nevertheless,  the  reconstructive  work  must 
follow  the  destructive  on  an  equally  gigantic  scale.  Never  before 
in  the  history  of  mankind  has  such  organization  existed  for  the 
first-aid  and  subsequent  treatment  of  the  sick  and  wounded,  and 
never  before  has  there  been  such  concentrated  human  and  animal 
suffering  calling  for  alleviation. 
It  is  a  curious  dispensation  of  Providence  that  man  first  found, 
and  still  to  a  very  large  extent  depends  for  his  remedial  and 
anaesthetic  agencies  on  the  familiar  herbs  and  weeds  which  grow 
wild  about  his  woods,  fields  and  hedgerows.  The  term  "  drug " 
includes  all  substances  used  as  medicines,  as  well  as  those  sub- 
stances which  may  be  misused  as  intoxicants  or  anaesthetics.  Drugs 
may  be  mineral,  such  as  the  bromides,  iodides,  and  chlorates  of 
potassium,  the  mercurial,  arsenical,  and  silver  compounds  and  many 
others.  In  addition  to  these,  modern  medicine  depends  largely  on 
the  coal-tar  derivatives,  among  which  may  be  mentioned  some  of 
the  more  familiar,  as,  for  instance,  acetanilid,  phenacetin,  and  the 
various  salicylates,  under  such  trade  names  as  aspirin  and  salol, 
owned  and  exploited  before  the  war  exclusively  by  the  Germans. 
The  present  paper,  however,  concerns  itself  particularly  with  the  raw 
materials  from  which  such  medicinal  agents  as  the  alkaloids  and 
glucosides  are  extracted.  These  are  represented  by  morphine, 
cocaine,  strychnine,  atropine,  quinine,  digitalin,  strophanthin,  aloin, 
etc.,  which  are  extracted  from  crude  drugs  imported  into  this  coun- 
try from  overseas. 
1  Presented  at  the  stated  meeting  of  the  institute  held  Wednesday,  April 
17,  1918.  Reprinted  from  the  Journal  of  the  Franklin  Institute,  September, 
1918. 
