the testimony of experience,—a testimony no stronger than that which has supported scores of other agents eventually discarded. If the indications, given by the pharmacological examination of a drug, are opposed to experience in its favour, the latter must almost certainly be at fault."[1]
But clinical experiences and observations of eminent physicians on the actions of a drug are as much entitled to respect and consideration as its pharmacological examination. So the view of the writer quoted above does not seem to us to be sound.
The modern method of therapeutical investigation is, first, to observe the action of a drug on a healthy animal, and then to make the results applicable to pathological states. The ancients recognised only one mode of studying the effects of a remedy, and that was by the simple observation of effects produced by drugs when administered in disease. This clinical observation of the action of remedies has been productive of some good, but it is questionable if much progress was effected so long as this method alone was employed. Towards the beginning of the nineteenth century, the necessity for ascertaining the actions of remedies by experiments on animals, was recognised by Bichat, Majendie, and others. This modern method of therapeutical research promises a great success. Working on this line, Lauder Brunton was able to use with success nitrite of amyl in angina pectoris. Here a correct application of a known action in a drug was made serviceable in the very first trial. The pharmacological experiments and clinical observations will thus settle the claims of Indian drugs on our attention.
III.
The Vedic Aryans were acquainted with about a hundred medicinal plants. When a king appoints a Purohita, he repeats a prayer in which he entreats that all the herbs of a hundred kinds over which King Soma rules will grant him uninterrupted happiness.
From the works of Oharaka and Sushruta we learn that the Indo-Aryans were acquainted with a large number of medicinal
- ↑ Dr. D. J, Leech in Vol. I of Allbutt's System of Medicine. London, 1896.
