Since disease, decay and death have always co-existed with life, the study of diseases and their treatment must also have been contemporaneous with the dawn of the human intellect. The primitive man must have used as therapeutical agents and remedial measures those things which he was able to procure most easily. There is no authentic record of medicines used by the primitive man. But the Rig Veda which is the oldest book in the library of man supplies curious information on the subject. From it, we learn that the Indo-Aryans used the Soma as a medicinal agent. It is not quite certain what the Soma plant was. This plant has not yet been satisfactorily identified. The Indo-Aryans used the plant for sacrificial purposes and its juice is described in the ancient Aryan literature as a stimulating beverage. The word oṣadhi (oshadhi) literally means heat-producer. When the Indo-Aryans came to use the Soma plant for therapeutical purposes, they came to possess a knowledge of the medicinal properties and uses of herbs and plants. Hence, Oshadhi (oṣadhi) applied to all herbs and medicinal plants.
由於疾病、衰老和死亡始終與生命共存，因此對疾病的研究及其治療也必定與人類智慧的開端同時出現。原始人必定使用那些他最容易獲得的東西作為治療劑和救護措施。沒有關於原始人使用藥物的真實記錄。但《梨俱吠陀》是人類圖書館中最古老的書籍，它提供了關於這個主題的特別資訊。從中我們得知印度雅利安人使用索瑪(或翻蘇摩)(Soma)作為藥物。目前尚不清楚索馬是什麼植物。該植物尚未得到令人滿意的鑑定。印度雅利安人將這種植物用於祭祀目的，它的汁液在古代雅利安文獻中被描述為一種刺激性飲料。oṣadhi (oshadhi)這個字的字面意思是產熱者。當印度雅利安人開始使用索瑪植物進行治療時，他們開始掌握草藥和植物的藥用特性和用途的知識。因此，Oshadhi（oṣadhi）適用於所有草藥和藥用植物。
The knowledge of medicinal plants must have been accumulated in the course of many centuries. In his work on Plants and Animals under Domestication, Darwin says;—“From innumerable experiments made through dire necessity by the savages of every land, with the result handed down by tradition, the nutritious, stimulating and medicinal properties of the most unpromising plants were probably first discovered.
藥用植物的知識必定是在許多世紀的過程中累積起來的。達爾文在他的《馴化植物和動物》一書中說道：
「每片土地上的野蠻人在迫不得已的情況下進行了無數實驗，結果透過傳統傳承下來，最沒有用途的植物的營養、刺激和藥用特性可能是最先發現的。」
藥用植物的知識必定是在許多世紀的過程
The “doctrine of signatures” would also account for the use of several plants as medicinal agents. This doctrine is based on the resemblance in shape or color of some product of the vegetable kingdom with some organ in the animal economy. In the ignorance of anatomical or physiological data to work upon the primitive man thinks that these articles possess some action on those organs which they resemble in shape, size or color. Again, another reason for the extensive use of vegetable drugs may be the fact that plants are everywhere at hand, their number is very great and their forms are distinct and peculiar and thus are procured without trouble.
「藥效形象說」也解釋了幾種植物作為藥物的使用。這一學說是基於植物界的某些作物與動物經濟中的某些器官在形狀或顏色上的相似性。由於對解剖學或生理學數據的無知，原始人類認為這些物品對它們在形狀、大小或顏色上相似的器官具有某種作用。同樣，植物藥廣泛使用的另一個原因可能是植物隨處可見，數量眾多，形態獨特，取得起來並不困難。
It is greatly to the credit of the people of India that they were acquainted with a far larger number of medicinal plants than the natives of any other country on the face of the earth. The vegetable Materia Medica of the Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Jews, Babylonians, Persians, Chinese and Arabs does not display such an extensive knowledge of medicinal plants and drugs as does any of the authoritative medical works of the Hindus. The knowledge of herbs possessed by the aborigines of America, Australia or Africa, is also not very great. Regarding the medicinal agents of the American Indians, Mr. B.F. Stacey says:—
印度人民所熟悉的藥用植物數量遠多於地球上任何其他國家的當地人，這是值得稱讚的。希臘人、羅馬人、埃及人、猶太人、巴比倫人、波斯人、中國人和阿拉伯人的植物本草並不像印度人的任何權威醫學著作那樣展現出如此廣泛的藥用植物和藥物知識。美洲、澳洲或非洲的原住民對草藥的了解也不是很多。關於美洲印第安人的藥物。
Mr. B.F. Stacey 先生 說：
“From a thorough investigation I am convinced that the list is not lengthy, and that there is but little to be learned from their school of practice or repertoire of medicinal agents.”
「透過徹底的調查，我確信這份清單並不長，而且從他們的實踐流派或藥劑庫中可以學到的東西很少。」
Mr. J. N. Rose, in his “Notes on Useful Plants of Mexico.” says:—
“The country people and Indians seem to have but little knowledge of medicine, generally using teas made of bitter and strong-smelling herbs.”
JN Rose，在他的《墨西哥有用植物筆記》中。說：
「鄉村裏的人和印第安人似乎對醫學知識甚少，普遍使用苦味濃烈的草藥製成的茶。」
Mr. J. H. Maiden writes in his “Useful native plants of Australia.” (Pp. 146-147):—
“In fairness to ourselves we must confess ourselves very little indebted to the Australian aboriginal for information as to the medical (or in fact any other) properties of our plants. The poor aboriginal chiefly takes interest in the vegetation as supplying him with his scanty food, or as affording him fibre useful in securing fish and other animal substance. As far as we know, the Materia Medica of the blacks is of a very meagre description, yet the acquisition of even such little knowledge as they are supposed to possess has been slow and difficult, inasmuch as persons who have lived in a state of nature with them have not been distinguished for either their medical or botanical knowledge.”
He has very truly observed:—
“With the native Materia Medica of India, for instance, the case is very different. While some remedies are evidently used fancifully, and others for every disease to which the human frame is liable, much of the knowledge in regard to it is exact, the outcome of intelligent observation and enquiry.
JH Maiden 在他的《澳洲有用的本土植物》中寫道。（第 146-147 頁）：
「為了公平起見，我們必須承認，我們對澳洲原住民提供的有關我們植物的醫學（或實際上任何其他的）特性的資訊並沒有太多感激。貧窮的原住民主要對植被感興趣，因為植被為他提供了稀缺的食物，或為他們提供了用於獲取魚類和其他動物以的纖維。據我們所知，黑人的本草學描述非常貧乏，但對於生活在自然狀態下的人來說，即使他們應該擁有的這一點知識的獲得也是緩慢而困難的。他們的醫學或植物學知識並沒有與他們區分開來。」
他非常真實地觀察到：
「例如，對於印度本土的本草來說，情況就非常不同。雖然有些療法顯然是出於幻想，而有些療法則針對人體易患的每種疾病，但與此相關的許多知識都是準確的，是明智觀察和探究的結果。」
It may be that much of the knowledge of plants, once possessed by the ancestors of the present aborigines, has become lost to the world owing to their ignorance of the art of writing. But we should not treat with contempt the knowledge of herbs possessed by aborigines. There can be little doubt that their “medicine men” possess a remarkably accurate knowledge of the medical uses of the plants around them. We should remember that they have taught us the uses of some of our most important drugs. It is to them that we are indebted for our knowledge of Cinchona in malaria, Digitalis, Strophanthus and Physiostigma in heart diseases, and of Quassia as a bitter tonic. We cannot, therefore, sufficiently admire the practical wisdom of the ancient Hindus when they enjoined on the votaries of the healing art the penetration forests and the climbing of mountains to examine the qualities and properties of the medicines in their natural situations, and gather information regarding them from hunters and shepherds who may have had opportunities of witnessing their effects.
也許現在原住民的祖先曾經擁有的許多植物知識，因為他們對書寫藝術的無知而消失了。但我們不應該輕視原住民所擁有的草藥知識。毫無疑問，他們的「藥師」對周圍植物的醫療用途有著非常準確的了解。我們應該記住，他們教會了我們一些最重要藥物的用途。正是他們讓我們了解了金雞納(奎寧)在治療瘧疾方面的知識，毛地黃、旋花草(旋花羊角拗；莢竹桃科)和毒扁豆屬(蝶形花科)在治療心臟病方面的知識，以及苦木(紅雀椿屬)作為苦味滋補品的知識。因此，我們不得不法充分欽佩古代印度教徒的實踐智慧，他們囑咐治療藝術的信徒深入森林和攀登山脈，以檢查藥物在自然狀態下的品質和特性，並收集有關藥物的信息。它們來自獵人和牧羊人，他們可能有機會親眼目睹它們的影響。
About a generation ago, the use of plants and herbs as remedial agents was greatly discredited. The late Sir Thomas Lauder Brunton drew an analogy between the weapons and tools employed in art or warfare, and the implements used by man in the treatment of disease in different ages. It is customary to divide the progress of civilization into four stages, characterized by the nature of the weapons employed. “In the first or Paleolithic age, man employed weapons or tools of flint roughly chipped into shape and unpolished. In the next or Neolithic age, the implements consisted of stone, bat they were polished. The next age is characterized by the employment of bronze as a material, and the fourth and highest stage by the employment of iron.
大約在一代人之前，使用植物和草藥作為治療劑的做法受到了極大的質疑。已故的Thomas Lauder Brunton爵士將藝術或戰爭中使用的武器和工具與不同時代人類用於治療疾病的工具進行了類比。人們習慣上根據所使用武器的性質將文明的進步分為四個階段。
「在第一個或舊石器時代，人類使用的武器或燧石工具是粗略成型且未經磨光的。在下一個或新石器時代，工具由石頭製成，但經過拋光。再下一個時代的特點是使用青銅作為材料，第四個也是最高階段的特徵是使用鐵。」
In the same way, we may recognise four stages in the development of the implements in the treatment of disease. In the first stage crade drugs were employed, prepared in the roughest manner, such as powdered Cinchona or metallic antimony. In the next stage, these were converted into more active and more manageable forms, such as extracts or solutions, watery or alcoholic. In the third stage, the pure active principles, separated from the crude drugs, were employed, e.g., morphine and quinine. In the fourth stage, instead of attempting to extract our medicines from the natural products in which they are contained, we seek to make for ourselves such substances as shall possess the particular action we desire.
同樣，我們可以認識到治療疾病的工具的發展有四個階段。
「在第一階段，使用了以最粗糙的方式製備的原始藥物，例如金雞納(奎寧)粉或金屬銻。在下一階段，這些物質被轉化為更活性和更易於管理的形式，例如萃取物或溶液、水或酒精。在第三階段，使用從生藥中分離出來的純有效成分，例如嗎啡和奎寧。在第四階段，我們不再試圖從含有藥物的天然產物中提取藥物，而是尋求為自己製造具有我們期望的特定作用的物質。
This method had been pursued since the time when Professors Crum Brown and Fraser were able to demonstrate the connection between chemical constitution and physiological action. With the help of the advanced chemistry of modern times, an attempt to establish rational therapeutics was being made by the leading pharmacologists of the world. Thus the employment of inorganic salts and chemical principles obtained from the vegetable kingdom, which had been much in vogue about half a century ago, was being gradually abandoned in favor of derivatives obtained from coal-tar and various alcohols. As was once pointed out by the authors of the Extra Pharmacopoeia, “the place in medical treatment, of quinine and morphine, the two mainstays of the medical practitioners of twenty years ago, is in a great measure filled by antipyrin, antifebrin, phenacetin, exalgine, and salicylate of sodium on the one hand, and by sulphonal, tetronal, chloral, &c., on the other. The day was eagerly looked forward to when the articles of our organic materia medica were to be supplanted by the creations of the chemist.
自從克拉姆•布朗教授和弗雷澤教授能夠證明化學組成和生理作用之間的關聯以來，人們就一直在追求這種方法。在現代先進化學的幫助下，世界領先的藥理學家正在嘗試建立合理的治療方法。因此，大約半個世紀前流行的無機鹽和從植物界獲得的化學原理的使用逐漸被放棄，取而代之的是從煤焦油和各種醇中獲得的衍生物。正如《番外藥典》作者曾經指出的那樣，二十年前醫學界的兩大支柱奎寧和嗎啡在醫療領域的地位在很大程度上被安替比林、退熱布林、非那西丁、一方面是 exalgine 和水楊酸鈉，另一方面是磺醛、四酮醛、三氯乙醛等。”人們熱切地盼望著這一天，我們的有機藥物文章將被化學家的創造所取代。
Analogy however is no safe guide in science. So Brunton’s comparison of the different articles of Materia Medica to the weapons of the different geologic periods, is, to say the least, very fallacious. There is something like what may be called “Fashion in medicine.” It is due to this “fashion,” that some of the good old remedies are labelled “out of fashion.” For long it was not considered fashionable to use crude herbs. Synthetic remedies were the fashion of the day. It is not only the great war which is now raging in Europe that has made the pendulum of fashion swing from one extreme to the other, but the oscillation was visible even a considerable time before the outbreak of the War.
然而，類比並不是科學的安全指南。因此，布倫頓將《本草》的不同文章與不同地質時期的武器進行比較，至少可以說是非常錯誤的。有一種東西可以稱為「醫學時尚」。正是由於這種“時尚”，一些古老的好療法被貼上了“過時”的標籤。長期以來，使用天然草藥並不被認為是時尚。合成藥物是當時的時尚。不僅是現在在歐洲肆虐的大戰使時尚的鐘擺從一個極端擺動到另一個極端，而且這種擺動甚至在戰爭爆發之前的相當長一段時間內就已經可見。
Thus a reaction seemed to have set in, in favor of plants being used as medicines. Referring to the use of the Bilberry (Vaccinium Myrtillus) as a remedy in Typhoid fever and other infectious diseases of the intestine—a paper read by Dr. Max M. Bernstein, M.B., before the Hunterian Society of London and published in the British Medical Journal for 7th February, 1903,—Sir James Sawyer, M. D., London, F.R.C.P., Senior Consulting Physician to the Queen’s Hospital; and Ex-Professor of Medicine in the Queen’s College, Birmingham, wrote in the British Medical Journal for February, 4 28th, 1903:—
“Long have some of us dwelt with affection, and with hope of finding modern uses for some old drugs which were being lost to sight and to memory in the limbus of the past, and perhaps not without some practical success, upon the archæology of our Medicinal “Simples,” upon the histories and lore, upon the forms, virtues, and renown of many old-time Medicinal plants, upon plants called simples because each of them has been held to enshrine its particular curative virtue, and so to furnish a simple remedy for some symptom of disease, or for some individual morbid manifestation. Perhaps we have loved to walk, as Evelyn did, “into a large garden, esteemed for its furniture one of the fairest, especially for simples;” or perhaps we have followed our own Garth, “when simpling on the flowery hills he strayed.”
因此，似乎出現了一種支持將植物用作藥物的反應。提到使用山桑子（越橘）治療傷寒和其他腸道傳染病——一篇由 Dr. Max M. Bernstein, MB，在倫敦亨特學會之前發表，並於 1903 年 2 月 7 日在《英國醫學雜誌》上發表，—詹姆斯•索耶爵士(Sir James Sawyer)，醫學博士，倫敦，皇家內科醫師學會會員，女王醫院高級諮詢醫師；伯明罕女王學院的前醫學教授在 1903 年 2 月 4 日 28 日的《英國醫學雜誌》上寫道：
「長期以來，我們中的一些人一直懷著感情，並希望為一些古老的藥物找到現代用途。我們的藥用「簡單」的考古學、歷史和傳說、許多古老的形式、美德和名聲，都在過去的視野和記憶中消失了，也許並非沒有一些實際的成功。藥用植物，稱為單一成分(簡單)植物，因為每種植物都被認為具有其獨特的治療功效，因此可以為某些疾病症狀或某些個別病態表現提供簡單的治療方法。也許我們喜歡散步，就像伊芙琳那樣，『走進一個大花園，那裡的家具是最美麗的之一，特別是對於簡單的人來說； 或者也許我們追隨了我們自己的庭院，當他單純地在花朵盛開的山丘上，他就迷失了。』
“True is it to-day as when Sir Thomas Watson so declared a third of a century ago that ‘the greatest gap in the science of Medicine is to be found in its final and supreme stage—the stage of therapeutics.’ Therapeutics advances by our increasing knowledge of the nature of morbid processes and of the physiological effects of remedies, and also by studying again many a good old drug by the light of later scientific methods and also by judicious selection from the traditions of popular medicine. Such selection gave us Digitalis.”
「今天確實如此，正如托馬斯•沃森爵士在三分之一個世紀前所宣稱的那樣，醫學科學中最大的差距是在其最後和最高階段——治療學階段。治療學的進步是由於我們對發病過程的本質和治療方法的生理效應的了解不斷增加，並且通過根據後來的科學方法重新研究許多好的古老藥物以及從流行醫學傳統中明智地選擇。這樣的選擇給了我們的毛地黃。」
Dr. Ischirch, Professor of Practical Chemistry in the University of Berne, is reported in the Lancet of 2nd October, 1909, to have said:—
“We may assuredly hope that medicine, when it has thoroughly ruined its digestion with synthetical remedies and tested all the organs of the animal body, will return to the most ancient remedies of mankind, to the medicinal plants and drugs, for the utility of which the experience of the thousands of years vouches.
Ischirch博士。根據 1909 年 10 月 2 日《刺胳針》報道，伯恩大學實用化學教授 Ischirch說：
「我們可以肯定地希望，當醫學用綜合療法徹底破壞了其消化功能並測試了動物體的所有器官後，將回歸到人類最古老的療法，回歸到藥用植物和藥物，以發揮其效用。數千年的經驗證明。」
There were other medical men also who were coming to look upon drugs of synthetical origin acting upon the system as foreign bodies, depressing and paralysing its functions. But according to them such was not the case with the drugs of vegetable origin which in their natural combination meet nutritional conditions of the system. The possibilities and potentialities of medicinal plants and vegetable drugs have not been as yet properly and fully studied. In an article on “the teaching of chemical medicine,” in the British Medical Jurnal of 3rd January, 1914, Dr. Mackenzie wrote that:—
“Not one single drug has been carefully studied so as to understand its full effects on the human system, effects that could be easily recognised had a systematic examination been carried out when it was administered in the hospital wards.”
還有其他醫學家也開始將合成藥物視為異物，抑制和麻痺其功能。但據他們稱，植物來源的藥物並非如此，其天然組合符合系統性的營養條件。藥用植物和植物藥的可能性和潛力尚未得到適當和充分的研究。在1914 年 1 月 3 日《英國醫學雜誌》上發表的一篇關於「化學醫學教學」的文章中，
Dr. 麥肯齊寫道：
「沒有任何一種藥物經過仔細研究，以了解其對人體系統的全部影響，如果在醫院病房使用該藥物時進行系統性檢查，就可以很容易地識別出這些影響。」
The above observation of Dr. Mackenzie is fully borne out by what Dr. Charles J. Macalister, M.D., F.R.C.P. has discovered, as reported in the British Medical Journal of January 6, 1912, in Symphytum officinale, a plant known as “comfrey” in England. He considers it as a “potent cell proliferant.” It was a long forgotten remedy which was used in olden times to heal ulcers. On analysis, the root of the plant was found to contain allantione to which Dr. Macalister attributed its action as a potent cell proliferant.
博士的上述觀察 麥肯錫博士的說法充分證實了這一點。根據1912 年 1 月 6 日《英國醫學雜誌》報道，醫學博士、皇家內科醫師學會會員 Charles J. Macalister 在Symphytum officinale中發現了一種在英國被稱為「紫草」的植物。他認為它是「有效的細胞增殖劑」。這是一種早已被遺忘的藥物，在古代用來治療潰瘍。經過分析，發現該植物的根部含有尿囊素，Dr. 麥卡利斯特將其作用歸因於有效的細胞增殖劑。
Dr. William Bramwell, M.A., M.D., B. Ch., of Liverpool, concluded a note on the above-named plant published in the same issue of the British Medical Jurnal in the following significant words.
“It is indeed refreshing and gratifying, in these days of serums and vaccines and highly complicated preparations, the administration of which, in some cases, is fraught with the gravest possible danger and soul-harrowing anxiety on the part of the administrator, to find a physician of Dr. Macalister’s standing setting on foot the investigation of so simple and natural a remedy as common comfrey.”
利物浦的威廉‧布拉姆韋爾 (William Bramwell) 博士，醫學博士、法學學士，在同一期《英國醫學雜誌》上對上述植物發表了以下重要文字的註釋。
「在血清和疫苗以及高度複雜的製劑的今天，這確實令人耳目一新和令人欣慰，在某些情況下，管理人員的管理充滿了可能存在的最嚴重的危險和令人痛苦的焦慮，博士的醫生。麥卡利斯特開始著手研究像普通紫草(這樣簡單而自然的療法。」
The present war has shown the necessity of using herbs and plants in preference to Synthetics. The President of the Botanical section of the British Association held at New Castle in 1916, very truly observed, regarding the medicinal plant industry,
“Experience would indicate that here is opportunity for investigation, and, unless due care is taken, also danger of waste of time, money and effort A careful systematic study of species, varieties and races is in some cases desirable in order to ensure the growth of the most productive or valuable plant; and such a study might also reveal useful substitutes or additions. Here the co-operation between the scientific worker and the commercial man is imperative.”
目前的戰爭表明有必要優先使用草藥和植物而不是合成物。1916 年，英國協會植物學分會主席在紐卡斯爾舉行的會議上，對於藥用植物產業提出了非常真實的看法：
「經驗表明，這是進行調查的機會，而且，除非採取應有的謹慎，否則還有浪費時間、金錢和精力的危險。在某些情況下，需要對物種、品種和種族進行仔細的系統研究，以確保生長最俱生產力或最有價值的植物；這樣的研究也可能揭示有用的替代品或添加物。在這裡，科學工作者和商人之間的合作勢在必行。
The study of medicinal plants is neglected by medical men all over the world, but more so in India. These are contemptuously referred to as “old women’s” remedies. It is our misfortune that the chemistry and pharmacology of most of these plants have not been properly investigated.
藥用植物的研究被世界各地的醫學家所忽視，但在印度更是如此。這些被輕蔑地稱為“老婦人”療法。不幸的是，大多數這些植物的化學和藥理學尚未得到適當的研究。
The late Right Hon’ble Mr. Gladstone was a man of extraordinary genius. As a scholar, politician, and statesman he will ever shine in the pages of English history as long as England is not effaced from the map of the World. In the course of a speech, delivered on the 26th March, 1890, on the occasion of the opening of Guy’s Hospital Residential College, referring to the importance of the study of Botany with a view to learn the “qualities of plants which are so remarkable and power ful in their healing capacities,” he said:—
“I am not aware whether Botany now forms a recognised branch of the medical education, but I cannot help wishing that it did, and hoping that it may in the future, first of all, not only because it is in itself a most beautiful and interesting study exercising the mind without fatiguing it, and stimulating the imagination without leading it astray, but also, because I cannot help wishing, although I know it is too much to expect of our actual medical men, that they should be careful observers of nature, yet in their younger years, before they have entered on their great career, I cannot help wishing that they had the habit of noticing all the qualities of plants which are so remarkable and powerful in their healing capacities.”
已故的尊敬的格萊斯頓先生是一位具有非凡天才的人。身為學者、政治家和政治家，只要英國不從世界地圖上消失，他就將永遠在英國歷史的篇章中閃耀。1890 年 3 月 26 日，在蓋伊醫院住宿學院開幕之際發表的一次演講中，提到了植物學研究的重要性，以了解“植物的品質是如此卓越”並且具有強大的治愈能力，”他說：
「我不知道植物學現在是否已成為醫學教育的一個公認的分支，但我不禁希望它確實如此，並希望它在未來可以成為這樣，首先，不僅因為它本身是最美麗和最有趣的學科，這是一項有趣的研究，鍛鍊頭腦而不使其疲勞，激發想像力而不使其誤入歧途，而且，因為我情不自禁地希望，儘管我知道對我們真正的醫生期望過高，但他們應該成為自然的仔細觀察者……然而，在他們年輕的時候，在他們進入偉大的職業生涯之前，我不禁希望他們能夠養成注意到植物的所有品質的習慣，這些植物的治療能力是如此非凡和強大。
Then Mr. Gladstone narrated an anecdote, how the leaves of a plant healed the cut on his finger caused by an axe in wood-cutting.
“You will think it ludicrous, if I were to tell you a little anecdote of my own, which is of the very simplest character, and it is so small and so slight as almost to be contemptible, but still it illustrates what I mean. I have been given, as is pretty well-known, or at least, I have been given to the pursuit of wood-cutting. From a pure accident, I drew my fingers the other day along the edge of the axe which was lying close by, and which was tolerably sharp, and cut my finger. Upon searching about me I found I had no handkerchief available. I wanted to staunch my little wound. Not having a handkerchief, I got a leaf and put it on the wound. I am bound to say that this was not the result of botanical knowledge, but it was a purely empirical proceeding on the chance of the quality of the leaf. But there was a curious result. I knew the time nature occupied in healing a little breach of continuity, and when I put on the leaf, I assure you it is the fact, that it healed in exactly half the time. It is hardly worth mentioning such a thing as I say but I cannot help having the belief that there are good treasures in nature more than have heretofore been explored in every branch. To make medical students, before they have come to their great responsibilities, observers of the great qualities and capabilities of plants, I cannot help thinking that some good will be done.
隨後格萊斯先生頓講述了一個軼事，植物的葉子如何治癒了他在伐木時被斧頭割傷的手指。
「如果我告訴你我自己的一件小軼事，你會覺得很可笑，雖然它是最簡單的，而且它是如此之小，如此微不足道，幾乎令人鄙視，但它仍然說明了我的意思。眾所周知，我被賦予了，或者至少，我被賦予了對伐木的追求。前幾天，由於一次純粹的意外，我用手指沿著附近那把鋒利的斧頭邊緣劃了一下，割傷了我的手指。當我四處尋找時，我發現我沒有手帕。我想縫合我的小傷口。我沒有手帕，就找了一片葉子，敷在傷口上。我必須說，這不是植物學知識的結果，而是純粹對葉子特性認知的經驗過程。但出現了一個奇怪的結果。我知道大自然在治癒一個連續性的小缺口時所花費的時間，當我敷上葉子時，我向你保證，這是事實，它只用了一半的時間就治癒了。我所說的這樣的事情幾乎不值得一提，但我不禁相信，自然界中存在著比迄今為止在每個分支中探索過的更多的寶藏。為了讓醫學生在承擔起自己的重大責任之前，成為植物偉大品質和能力的觀察者，我不禁想到會做一些好事。」
The importance of studying the subject of Indian medicinal plants has been again and again insisted on by several writers. It is too late in the day to discuss the necessity of such a study. The ease and cheapness with which these are procurable, the marvellous powers that are attributed to them in the cure of different maladies by natives of India, should induce us to investigate their properties and settle once for all their claims on our attention.
一些作家一再強調研究印度藥用植物這個主題的重要性。現在討論這項研究的必要性為時已晚。這些藥物的獲得十分方便且廉價，印度當地人認為它們具有治療不同疾病的神奇力量，這些都應該促使我們研究它們的特性，並一勞永逸地解決它們引起我們注意的所有主張。
Dr. John Lindley was a renowned botanist. His views on the subject of vegetable drugs deserve careful consideration. In the preface to his work on Flora Medica, he wrote:—
No one will be bold enough to assert that the physicians already possess the most powerful agents produced by the vegetable kingdom; for every year is bringing some new plants into notice for its energy, while others are excluded because of their inertness. In tropical countries, where a fervid sun, a humid air, and a teeming soil give extraordinary energy to vegetable life, the natives of those regions often recognise the existence of potent herbs unknown to the European practitioner. No doubt such virtues are often as fabulous and imaginary as those of indigenous plants long since rejected by the sagacity of European practice. But we are not altogether to despise the experience of nations less advanced in knowledge than ourselves, or to suppose, because they may ascribe imaginary virtues to some of their officinal substances, as has been abundantly done by ourselves in former days, that therefore the remedial properties of the plants are not worthy of serious investigation or that their medical knowledge is beneath our notice because they are unacquainted with the terms of modern science. It is not much above 20 years since an English officer in India was cured of gonorrhoea by his native servant, after the skill of regular European practitioners had been exhausted. The remedy employed was Cubebs, the importance of which was previously unknown, and the rationale of whose action is to this day beyond the discovery of physiologists. It is of undoubted value in urethral catarrh: and who shall say that there are not hundreds of equally powerful remedies still remaining to be discovered. and it must be sufficiently apparent to all unprejudiced minds, that the resources of the vegetable kingdom, far from being exhausted, have hardly yet been called into existence. It is presumptuous for the theorist to assert that he already possesses a remedy for all the maladies that flesh is heir to; it is mere idleness in the routine practitioner, carried away by the attraction of spacious generalities, to fancy that one tonic is as good as another tonic, or one purgative as another purgative. In reality the true cause of the different actions of medicines upon the human body is admitted by the highest authorities to be wholly unknown; and surely this is in itself the best of all reasons why we should not assume that we already possess against disease all the remedies which nature affords; on the contrary it should stimulate us to reiterated enquiries into the peculiar action of new remedial agents.
約翰•林德利博士是一位著名的植物學家。他對植物藥問題的看法值得仔細考慮。在他的《植物誌》一書的序言中，他寫道：
「沒有人會大膽地斷言醫生已經擁有植物王國生產的最強大的藥物；因為每年都會有一些新植物因其能量而受到關注，而另一些則因其惰性而被排除在外。在熱帶國家，炎熱的陽光、潮濕的空氣和肥沃的土壤為植物生命提供了非凡的能量，這些地區的當地人經常認識到歐洲實踐者未知的強效草藥的存在。毫無疑問，這些美德往往與早已被歐洲實踐的智慧所拒絕的本土植物的美德一樣神話般和想像。但我們並不完全鄙視知識不如我們發達的國家的經驗，或者因為他們可能將想像中的美德歸因於他們的某些藥用物質，就像我們過去所做的那樣，因此認為治療方法這些植物的特性不值得認真研究，或者它們的醫學知識不值得我們注意，因為它們不熟悉現代科學術語。距離駐印度英國軍官的淋病被他的本土僕人治癒還不到20年，而歐洲普通醫生的醫術已經用盡了。所採用的治療方法是薺菜，其重要性以前是未知的，其作用的原理至今仍超出生理學家的發現。它對於治療尿道黏膜炎無疑具有價值：誰敢說目前還沒有數百種同樣有效的療法有待發現。* 對於所有不帶偏見的人來說，這一定是非常明顯的，植物王國的資源遠未耗盡，而且幾乎還沒有被創造出來。理論家斷言他已經擁有治療肉體所繼承的所有疾病的方法是假定的。對於常規行醫者來說，純粹是懶惰，被寬泛的概括所吸引，幻想一種滋補品與另一種滋補品一樣好，或者一種瀉藥與另一種瀉藥一樣好。事實上，最高當局承認藥物對人體產生不同作用的真正原因是完全未知的；當然，這本身就是為什麼我們不應該假設我們已經擁有大自然提供的所有治療疾病的方法的最佳理由。相反，它應該激勵我們反覆探究新的治療劑的特殊作用
And they (i.e., European practitioners) find the medicines which are powerful in Europe, comparatively inactive in other climates. The heat of a country, its humidity, particular localities, food, and the social habits of a people will predispose them to varieties of disease for which the drugs of Europe offer no sufficient remedy, and will render that which is relied upon in one country unworthy of dependence in another. Thus the Cinchona bark of Peru, important as it is in Europe, is, we are told, rejected by the people among whom it grows, because it is found too stimulating and heating for their excitable constitutions. And speaking of Ipecacuanha, Dr. Yon Maritus, who so carefully examined practically the Materia Medica of Brazil, asserts “nullumest dubium quin Emetica in terris zonne fervidae subjects effectus producent multo magis salutares quam in regionibus frigidioribus.”
「他們（即歐洲從業者）發現在歐洲有效的藥物在其他氣候條件下相對無效。一個國家的炎熱、濕度、特定的地區、食物和人民的社會習慣，會使他們容易患上歐洲藥物無法提供充分治療的各種疾病，並且會使在一個國家所依賴的藥物變得無效。不值得依賴他人。因此，秘魯的金雞納樹皮雖然在歐洲很重要，但據我們所知，卻被其生長的人們拒絕接受，因為它對他們易興奮的體質來說過於刺激和發熱。說到吐根草，博士。永•馬裡圖斯（Yon Maritus）對巴西的本草進行瞭如此仔細的實踐檢驗，他斷言「在 terris zonne fervidae 科目中，最無效的催吐劑可以在寒冷地區產生多種功效」。
“This last observation seems to indicate, that if emetic plants are so much more common in hot than cold countries, it is because there is so much greater a necessity for them. The late Mr. Burnett, and many other persons, have asserted that every country spontaneously furnishes remedies for those maladies which the people of the soil are naturally subject to, and that the foreign drugs imported into the markets of Europe would soon be superseded to a great extent, if the properties of European plants were carefully examined. It is contended, in illustration of this opinion, that Salicine, obtained from our native Willows is equal in energy to Quinine, and that it is formed by Providence in low marshy places exactly where remittent and intermittent fevers are experienced most frequently, and with the greatest severity
「最後的觀察似乎表明，如果催吐植物在炎熱的國家比寒冷的國家更常見，那是因為對它們的需求更大。已故的先生。伯內特和許多其他人都斷言，每個國家都會自發性地為當地人民自然遭受的疾病提供治療方法，並且進口到歐洲市場的外國藥物很快就會在很大程度上被取代，如果歐洲植物的特性經過仔細檢查。為了說明這一觀點，有人認為，從我們本土的柳樹中獲得的水楊酸的能量與奎寧相同，而且它是由普羅維登斯在低沼澤地形成的，正是在這些地方，最常出現陣發性和間歇性發燒的地方，並且與奎寧一樣。最嚴重*
Such a subject of investigation is by no means unimportant when it is considered that exotic drugs are not only costly, but often so much adulterated as to be unfit for use
考慮到外來藥物不僅價格昂貴，而且往往摻假嚴重以致不適合使用時，這樣的調查主題絕不不重要
“It by no means follows that plants are inert because medical men have reported unfavourably of their action. The most powerful species have had their energy destroyed by unskilful preparation, or by not knowing at what season to collect them. the very nature of the climate of tropical countries generally causes the
properties of plants to be more concentrated and completely elaborated than in Northern latitude.”