any material addition to our knowledge of the subject. In the second International Exhibition in London of 1862, Dr. J. F. Watson was placed in charge of the indigenous drugs. For the first time, several indigenous drugs were brought to light.
In the interval between the first exhibition of 1851 and the second one of 1862, several exhibitions were held in different parts of this country. But I do not think they added anything to our knowledge of indigenous drugs.
The publication of the Pharmacopoeia of India in 1867 under the authority of Her Majesty's Secretary of State for India marked an epoch in the history of the subject. To this day, that stands out as the authoritative work on the native remedies of this country. " With the view, firstly, of bringing to the notice of the profession in India those indigenous drugs which European experience has proved to possess value as medicinal agents, and which may be employed as efficient substitutes for imported articles ; and, secondly, of remodelling the Bengal Pharmacopoeia of 1844, Her Majesty's Secretary of State for India in Council was pleased to sanction the publication of a Pharmacopoeia for India based upon the British Pharmacopoeia, which, while affording all the information contained in that work of practical use in India, would embody and combine with it such supplementary matter of special value in that country as should adapt it to meet the requirements of the Indian Medical Department."[1]
The information that lay scattered among a large number of periodicals was brought together in this work and made accessible for reference to the medical officers serving in this country. Between the publication in Calcutta of the Bengal Pharmacopoeia in 1814, and the issue of the Indian Pharmacopoeia in 1868, that is during the period of twenty-four years, great advances were made in our knowledge regarding the medicinal properties and therapeutic uses of the indigenous drugs.
The establishment of Medical Colleges and schools in this country also advanced our knowledge of indigenous drugs. The graduates whom the colleges turned out directed their attention
- ↑ Preface to the Indian Pharmacopoeia, p.vi.
