Page:Thirty-five years in the East.djvu/23

 INTRODUCTION, XUV kidneys, in the stomach, or even in the intestinal' canal, we might then be able to detect their viodiis operandi also.

it Bengal Dispensatory^ p. 162, it is said of Ranunculeae^ — " They are extremely acrid and corro- sive ; and so unmanageable, as to be excluded from medical use by all modern practitioners." It would, indeed, be much better to desist from using such- strong medicaments altogether, when they are em- ployed in undiluted doses only. It is really piti- able when all other arts and sciences have made such important progress, that medicine alone should' continue stationary ; that its professors, from an- unwillingness to investigate the nature, virtue, or proper use of medicinal substances, should fancy themselves bound to condemn simple yet efficacious plants to oblivion, as things which providence has created for the delight of our eyes only, and which are sure to injure us, should we attempt to use them ! Almost all the plants which were employed! formerly, have met with this fate. Where are the Salvia, the Ruta, Euphrasia,. Imperatoria ? As for the deadly poisons,. Calomel and Opium ! these glitter as fatally brilliant in the East Indian medi- cinal horizon, as they do among English physicianSi How beautiful and true are the lines of Shakes- peare — O, mickle is the powerful grace, that lies In plants, herbs, stones, and their true qualities : For naught so vile, that on the earth doth live, But to the earth some special good doth give ; Nor aught so good, but strained from that fair use, Revolts from true birth, sturabling^on abuse.