Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II ON SAVAGES, DOCTORS, AND PLANTS Savages knew Botany?First lady doctors and botanical excursions- True drugs and horrible ornaments?Hydrophobia cure?Cloves? Mustard?Ivy?Roses and Teeth?How to keep hair on?How to know if a patient will recover?Curious properties of a mushroom? The Scythian lamb?Quinine: history and use?Safflower?Romance of ipecacuanha?Wars of the spice trade?Cinnamon, logwood, and indigo?Romance of pepper?Babylonian and Egyptian botanists? Chinese discoveries?Theophrastus?Medieval times?The first illustrated book ? Numbers of plants known?Discoveries of painters and poets. IF we look back to the time when all men and women were mere savages, living like the Esquimaux or the Australians of to-day, then it is certain that every person was much interested in plants. Nothing was so interesting as daily food, because no one was ever certain of even one good meal in the day. So that in those early times there was a very sound, well-grounded knowledge of roots, bulbs, and fruits. They knew all that were good to eat, all that could possibly be eaten in time of famine and starvation, and also every poisonous and unwholesome plant. Some savage genius must have discovered that certain plants were good medicinen; that certain tree-barks helped to check fever, and that others were worth trying when people had successfully devoured more than they FIRST LADY DOCTORS could comfortably digest. The life of a savage meant tremendous meals, followed by days of starvation; even now, when young children are fed on rice in India, a thread is tied round their waist, and, when this bursts, they are not allowed to eat any more. Very probably some of these early physicians were lady doctors usually of a certain age. Men were too busy with their hunting and wa…
