In the Bibliography we have included books on Herbalogy where material and information on Indian Herbalogy, general literature on Indian life and culture, periodics and reference books were obtained. We also incorporated closely related works on health and medical botanics so our readers and students can appraise the proper significance of Herbalogy in the general field of the healing art. We are not able to include all books on the subject as this is impossible, only those we have on hand, or possession of, or in command of, being mentioned.
The Russian medical and herbal books are listed under a separate title. To acknowledge the full cooperation of Natalie K. Trechikoff and N. G. Tretchtikoff, who have an excellent command of the Russian language and authority of Herbalogy, is but a few honoured words in a field of immeasurable thanks. Due to their understanding, experience and success, inspired by love, they took all responsibility to relay the Russian material for translation into English. Our latest scientific data on information on the subject of Herbalogy is from dynamic and prolific Russian literature. Many North American medical plants have more and better scientific uses than in their own country. We bring to your attention only a few of their most publicized or available publications. A complete list of their Folk Medicine and Herbalogy would be a book in itself. As an“ on-hand” example, we have more than 500 titles on one subject alone— Ginseng( Panax Q). The information is of monographic character— research, clinical reports, agricultural, botanical and biological data, excluding Russian herbals in which Ginseng always has a prominent place. Up to the present day the medical property of American Ginseng is not officially recognized in North American literature. However, commercially it is highly respected because of Chinese demand.
One purpose of our combined work is to give comparative methods on certain plants and how they were, and still are, used in all other countries. We have separate continents different as to people, culture, history, and geography, but one point in common, their Folk Medicine in the past, and modern medicine of the present, use the same plant for medical purpose brought into use as an individual practice. Also, from this point we have used material on medical botanics from India and we limited ourselves to the material available to us at the moment.
It is a great challenge and rewarding effort to make comparative studies of medical botanics in many countries, but it can be done only on monographic methods, when only one subject is described in all details. Our book is of general character in the initial and pioneering of this field. We only wish to insert the problem and interest students to go farther in this direction. Herbalogy as such is not a one-person project, the horizon is beyond the capability of one person, one institute, or one country.
LANGUAGE BARRIER FOR RESEARCH
To learn more about the Indians we must study each group separately before a general conclusion is made concerning their ways and, in regard to our subject, Herbalogy in particular.
Research has studied and presumed 150 separate tongues. It is estimated by the different authorities as follows: from North America, Canada and U. S. A. 55 – 56 different stocks of“ families”, 24 – 30 in Mexico and Central America and up to 94 in South America. These classifications are already reduced and it is expected that further reclassification will follow after better and extended studies.
Regarding the American Indian language, and many other attributes, a firm opinion was attached— primitive, simple and that their language had no grammar at all. This has since been disproved. The many and unfamiliar sounds were entirely new to the Europeans, but grammatically and morphologically more complex than Indo-European language, and as different from one another as