WHAT SAVAGES HAVE TAUGHT US.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7417, 31 May 1902, Page 1

WHAT SAVAGES HAVE TAUGHT US.

The average man is so fond of enlarging on the blessings that have been conferred on the benighted heathen by civilisation aa embodied by European!' ideas/ that it is surely time to look at the other side of the shield. ' The greatest of all/ the arts is that of "healing," and; hundreds of the natural pr»> ducts of the vegetable kingdom, acknowledged to-day to be the only cures for certain terrible diseases, have been given- tout by members of savage tribes. To begin with, it was a savage of Pern that first discovered the wonderful pro* perties of coca, a very valuable narcotic and stimulant, from -which we obtain cocaine, a drug invaluable to oculists and surgeons, making delicate operations possible without having . recourse to chloroform, the action of the cocaine being that of a "local" anaesthetic, while chloroforni deprives a person entirely of will-power. Another useful medicine is kola, also s> ' stimulant, /tised with coca, ierated watey^ and in certain medicines. Tie savages of West Africa first found out ike propertug of the kola nut. ... ; Theme, a drug that has certain propertitsj similar to tea, we owe to the Paraguayans, while tea and coffee are also due to socalled savages, as well. as cocoa. ■ . •' From the natives of Calabar, European scientists first learnt the use of the Galir ' bar bean. This wonderful product of th« vegetable kingdom produces an alkaloid known as eeeoin or physostigmin, which, is . indispensable to oculists. The alkaloid is extracted from the bean and is used to contract the pupil of th« eye, and in other ways that would involve too much technical detail to be set down here. In tetanus, neuralgia, and rheu- 4 matism, the bean is also of use. When . taken in a large quantity the bean acts as a powerful emetic. , Sparingly, it means m^ sure death, for it is a most curious poison. •'* • Yet eseoin is . a wonderfully valuable drug, and we owe it entirely to the. vigilance of a remote African tribeIt is not. only in medicine and science that we have learnt much that we should otherwise never have known from savages. We owe the knowledge that such men as Buffalo Bill, Baden-Powell, and all th« . great scouts possess to. the. savage. It is, to savages that we owe the opening up of continents, the discovery. ' of gold mines, and all the priceless treasures that we have hunted the world through, to discover.