Madras Journal of Literature and Science/Series 1/Volume 6/Notice (with a plate) of the Cassia Burmanni, with Remarks on the Materia Medica of India
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VII.—Notice (with a plate) of the Cassia Burmanni, with Remarks on the Materia Medica of India.—By Robert Wight, Esq. m. d., f. l. s., &c. Member of the Imp. Acad. Natures Curiosorum. Surgeon on the Madras Establishment.
My dear Sir,—At the close of my remarks on the cultivation of Senna, page 362 of your last Number, I mentioned an indigenous species possessing considerable medicinal properties, and added, that I should endeavour to procure specimens, from which to prepare a figure. I have now the pleasure to send you a drawing, rather too small to do justice to the subject, but so perfectly characteristic, so far as it goes, as to enable any one who may chance to meet with it to identify the plant—which is all that is wanted.
A recent notice in the public prints of a report by the 'Drug Committee' shows that it is the wish of government, to render this country as much as possible independent of foreign aid in the medical store department, by drawing on the resources of the country itself, for the supply of those medicinal agents required in the treatment of its more prevalent and dangerous forms of disease. As I have at different times paid a good deal of attention to medico-botanical subjects, you will, perhaps, under the protection of a medical plant, permit me to offer a few remarks applicable to the occasion of this paper, though less strictly appertaining to the objects of the Madras Journal, than to one exclusively devoted to medicine.
The report, which appears to have for its object that of showing the course to be pursued in forming an Indian Pharmacopoeia, has not yet, so far as I have learned, reached Madras, and as the notice I have seen does not mention the measures which the Committee propose to pursue for the improvement and extension of our knowledge of that department, my remarks and suggestions will be entirely confined to it.
A cursory retrospect of the history of Materia Medica is sufficient to satisfy any one, however slightly conversant with the subject, that to complete a work of the kind contemplated by the Committee, of even moderate pretensions, is a task of great difficulty, owing to the many sources of error by which it is beset ; and such a work can only be raised to the first rank, by the alow accumulation of experience, resulting from repeated experiment and observation, carefully distinguishing, at every step, between the jarring coincidences of port hoc and propter hoc: the result of which, in many instances, will be, to discard, as inert, medicines which have long enjoyed unmerited reputation, the removal of each of which must be esteemed an advance towards perfection.
The Hindoo Materia Medica, like that of all other nations but little advanced in civilization, is no doubt loaded with many such unworthy articles, but probably not much more so than those of Europe were two certuries ago; of these some may at once be struck out; others, however, can only be removed by the tedious process above specified. On the other hand it embraces many medicines of vast activity, but with whose powers, and the methods of administration best suited to elicit them, we are yet comparatively unacquainted. To detect error in the one case, and to ascertain the existence of valuable properties in the other, the same course must be followed, and not by one roan, or in one place, but by many, and in different situations, each, moreover, making sure that he is experimenting on the same plant.
This last precaution is of greater importance than some might sup- pose. I have repeatedly had wrong plants brought to me, when I had no other means of making known the one wanted, than by reference to the native name assigned in Ainslie's Catalogue, and I have also seen two persons sent in different directions for the same plant, bring different ones, each insisting that his was the true one, and some times both at variance with the systematic name given as the synonym. I know an instance where a gentleman experimented most perseveringly with the common physic-nut (Jatrophacurcas) on the supposition that it was the true Croton tiglium, being brought to him by his dresser as the plant so named in Ainslie's Materia Medica. The very same thing happened to myself and on the same authority; I simply put the book into my native dresser's hand, made him read the name, and asked him if he knew the plant—"yes, plenty grow here," was the reply, and the one brought was, as in the above instance, the Jatropha. I fortunately knew the difference, and was saved the trouble and disappointment of prescribing grain doses of a medicine that may be taken in half drachm ones, or many seeds, even, be eaten with impunity, provided the embryo, in which their activity is concentrated, be carefully removed. The fact here stated, will no doubt account for some of the very contradictory statements we occasionally hear from practitioners, who have been separately using, as they supposed, the same medicine, one declaring it of great activity, while the other maintains that it is perfectly inert, or at least that its activity is far below what other accounts gave him reason to expect. Such then is the present state of Indian Medical botany, and so long as this kind of uncertainty attaches to the investigations of those who endeavour to raise it to a higher rank in science, by carefully conducted experiment and observation, it is next to impossible that they can succeed, or that it can ever advance to that degree of perfection which it is now the anxious wish of the supreme government it should attain, and might under proper management be made to attain.
Our present knowledge of Indian medical plants is principally derived from the works of Drs. Fleming and Ainslie. These, for the most part, are little more than mere catalogues of native names of plants, with the botanical ones, so far as the authors had the means of ascertaining them, attached, but generally without descriptions, and in no instance with figures of the plants referred to, by which a person unacquainted with botany could ascertain the identity of specimens supplied by a native druggist, with the plant named in the catalogue; and, for want of plates, these, in all other respects valuable, works, to this day remain almost a dead letter. They, it is true, refer to works where botanical characters, and sometimes plates, are to be found, but the books so quoted are in few hands, some of them of great rarity, or so costly and bulky that few can afford to purchase them, or if they did, could conveniently carry them on a march: while Willdenow's Species Plantarum, in nearly all cases the leading authority, requires, on the part of the person consulting it, a proficiency in botany, to make out a plant from his brief characters, not easily acquired, and which few obtain.
When these authors published, such was the backward state of the arts in India, that, had they wished it, they could scarcely at any cost, short of sending their drawing to England to be engraved, have illustrated their works with figures of the plants named. Times are now greatly altered: the discovery of lithography, and its application to the representation of objects of natural history, has effected this change: now, as the accompanying figure proves, we may even have good coloured representations, and, I believe, at an expense little if at all exceeding what similar ones would cost in England; say, for quarto sized coloured plates, about 30 or 35 Rupees the hundred, and executed in simple outline, in the manner of those I have already published in the Journal, for less than half the sum.[1] We may now therefore fairly assume, that, under the double advantage of enjoying the fostering aid of the Supreme Government, and profiting by the flood of light which the unceasing labours of vegetable physiologists has of late years cast on the relationship existing between the natural affinities, botanically considered, and the active properties of plants, the time has arrived for making a rapid advance in this important department of medicine. With these collateral aids, little more is required than industry and judgment on the part of the compiler, to lay the foundation of a local medical botany as perfect as any yet extant. That sufficient materials for such a work are already in existence, I think I may with confidence assume, from having myself, with but little care, collected a considerable store, with the intention of undertaking the work on my own responsibility, should circumstances favourable to its prosecution occur. These it has not yet fallen to my lot to enjoy; and, hitherto, the only advantage I have reaped in return for a heavy expenditure, has been some experience of the manner in which, I think, it should be executed.
It only remains for me to add, as the deduction from the preceding observations, that I consider it next to impossible, without the aid of pictorial illustrations, to make any considerable progress in the knowledge of Indian Medical Botany, and that as these could now be supplied at very moderate cost, the subject seems to be one meriting the attention of government. For myself I am so thoroughly satisfied of the utility, or rather the absolute necessity, of plates, towards aiding the investigations of the naturalist, and more especially those of the tyro in natural history, that I consider it almost a duty to publish, so soon as circumstances will permit, a series of figures representing one or more species of each of the natural orders defined in my peninsular flora, with the view of facilitating the researches of those who (perhaps for the first time) have given their attention to that method of arrangement since the publication of that work. The principal obstacle to be sursurmounted, in embarking on such publications, is the expense necessarily incurred before any return can be expected; and then the uncertainty of finding a demand for such costly works, sufficient to indemnify the publisher for his risk and first heavy outlay. Whether it will be possible to overcome these impediments in Madras I have yet to learn, but enquiry is now on foot, and if I find that it can be 'got up' at so cheap a rate as to secure for itself, such a sale as will nearly cover the cost, I shall be happy to avail myself of the issue of your next number to make known the plan, and exhibit a specimen of the work, by the publication of a prospectus, and in the mean time, if any among your readers are desirous of encouraging the undertaking, they, by making their wishes known, may greatly contribute towards having them gratified, as the names of even a few unexpected subscribers may go for in determining the course I shall pursue. Apologising for the unexpected length to which this letter has extended,
To
- ↑ This is cheaper than the Monthly botanical periodicals. The Botanical Magazine, the cheapest of these, charges at the rate of £4 0 4 per 100 4to. plates with letter press descriptions to each, and has a circulation of about 1400 copies. On so large an impression the coat of copper plates and printing scarce exceeds a half-penny for each impression the principal outlay therefore is the colouring and paper, which cannot be lessened by repetition.