The eucalyptus or blue-gum tree grows on the hills of Tasmania and in Victoria on the mainland of Australia; it was introduced into Europe in 1856, and has been very extensively used as a remedy for intermittent fever, influenza, and as a powerful disinfectant.
“As in all similar cases,” says Stillé, “the discovery of its virtues was accidental. It is alleged that more than forty years ago the crew of a French man-of-war, having lost a number of men with ‘pernicious fever,’ put into Botany Bay, where the remaining sick were treated with eucalyptus, and rapidly recovered. It is also said that the virtues of the tree were well known to the aboriginal inhabitants.”
A good illustration of the ways in which the properties of plants have been discovered, and of the relation of poisonous to harmless herbs, may be found in the practice of the American Indians in their use of the manioc, a large shrub producing roots somewhat like parsnips. They carefully extract the juice, which is a deadly poison, and then grate the dried roots to a fine powder, which they afterwards convert into the cassava bread. How was this treatment of the root discovered? It was simply due to the fact that one species of the shrub is devoid of any poisonous property, and has only to be washed and may then be eaten with impunity. No doubt this non-poisonous root was the first which was used for food; then when the supply ran short they were driven by necessity to find out the way to use the almost identical root of the poisonous variety, which when divested of its juice is even better for food than the harmless root. Probably this was only discovered after many experiments and fatalities. “Necessity, the mother of invention,” in this as in most other things, ultimately directed the natives to the right way of dealing with this article of diet.
The male fern is a very ancient remedy for tape-worm, and to the present day physicians have found nothing so successful for removing this parasite. The plant is indigenous to Canada, Mexico, South America, India, Africa, and Europe. The negroes of South America have long used worm-seed (Chenopodium anthelminticum) as a vermifuge for lumbricoid worms. The plant grows wild in the United States, and has been introduced into the Pharmacopœia as a remedy especially adapted for the expulsion of the round-worms of children. Kousso (Brayera anthelmintica) has been employed from time immemorial in Abyssinia for the expulsion of tape-worm. It has been introduced into the British Pharmacopœia.
Some tribes of the Upper Orinoco, Rio Negro, etc., have been known to subsist for months on no other food than an edible earth, a kind of clay containing oxide of iron, and which is of a reddish-brown colour.
M. Cortambert, at a meeting of the Geographical Society in 1862, described this singular food, and said it seemed to be rather a stay for the stomach than a nourishment. Some white people in Venezuela have imitated the earth-eaters, and do not despise balls of fat earth.[84]
Savages require much larger doses of drugs than civilized people. Mr. Bonney relates[85] that he usually gave the aborigines of New South Wales half a pint or more of castor oil for a dose. Another man took three drops of croton oil as an ordinary dose.
Professor Bentley in 1862-63 contributed to the Pharmaceutical Journal a series of articles on New American Remedies which have been introduced into medical practice in consequence of their reputation amongst the Indians. Yellow-root (Xanthorrhiza apiifolia) has long been employed by the various tribes of North American Indians as a tonic, and may be compared to quassia or calumba root. It is included in the United States Pharmacopœia. Its active principle seems to be berberine.
The blue Cohosh plant (Caulophyllum thalictroides) has for ages been used by the aborigines of North America as a valuable remedy for female complaints. A tea of the root is employed amongst the Chippeway Indians on Lake Superior as an aid to parturition. The earliest colonists obtained their knowledge of the virtues of the blue cohosh from the natives, and it has for many years been a favourite diuretic remedy in the States. Its common names are pappoose-root, squaw-root, and blueberry-root. Its active principle is called caulophyllin.
Twin-leaf (Jeffersonia diphylla) is a popular remedy in Ohio and other North American States in rheumatism. It is called rheumatism-root. In chemical composition it is similar to senega.