Book Description

Excerpt from Florae Capensis Medicae Prodromus, or an Enumeration of South African Indigenous Plants, Used as Remedies by the Colonists of the Cape of Good Hope At present, we are indebted for the greater part of our knowledge of Cape remedies to the colonial farmer, residing in the more remote parts of the interior, or to the wandering native. These people, deprived of all medical aid, feel the necessity of trying the efficacy of different plants within their reach. Several of these have been employed in various maladies, and some of them have found their way into the Pharmacopoeia. During a residence of nearly twenty years in the Cape Colony as a medical Practitioner, I have with pleasure devoted much of my time to the study of the Cape Flora. Observing, that many indigenous plants were sucessfully used by the Boers and coloured people as House-remedies, in various complaints, and finding, that the utility of most of them, was utterly unknown to the scientific world, I commenced collecting the materials, which gave rise to the present publication. This would have been far more complete and satis factory, had I met with the co-operation of the country Practitioners, who have ample Opportunities of becoming acquainted with the various remedies commonly used. None of my readers can be more fully convinced of the deficiencies, contained in these pages, than my self but I have had no other ambition for publishing them, except the common good, and no other claim, but that of originality. I have called this dissertation a Pro drome or Precursor of a more extensive work on the subject, which I intend commencing, when I shall meet with due encouragement. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.