XIX
SOME NOTED DRUGS.
Who was the first cultivator of corn? Who first tamed and
domesticated the animals whose strength we use, and whom we
make our food? Or who first discovered the medicinal herbs which
from the earliest times have been our resource against disease?
Cardinal Newman: Sermon on The World's Benefactors.
The most valuable and original records of the history of drugs are to be found in "Pharmacographia" by F. A. Flückiger of Strasburg and Daniel Hanbury of London (published by Macmillan & Co.). I have as a rule avoided copying details from that work, although I have dealt with no subject without referring to it. In this section, however, the drugs named are of course treated in "Pharmacographia," and necessarily the facts given must to some extent correspond. But comparison would show that I have only selected subjects which were capable of discussion from a somewhat different point of view from that which guided Messrs. Flückiger and Hanbury.[1]
Aloes.
Dioscorides is the earliest medical writer to mention aloes as a medicine. According to him it should be
- ↑ The historical part of Dr. Tschirch's great work on Pharmakognosie is in course of publication while the proofs of this book are being read. It promises to be very thorough and modern in regard to drugs.
