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proportion of them are absolutely worthless and have probably crept in
through tradition and folklore. On the other hand many of the pharma-
copoeial drugs or allied species grown in India which could be used in the
manufacture of pharmacopoeial preparations are in common use. The work
done in this connection up to 1932 has been put up in a book entitled the
"Indigenous Drugs of India" by R. N. Chopra. Further work will be in-
cluded in the edition which is now due.
V. Researches on drug addiction in India.
That drug addition is a menace to the physical, mental and moral well-
being of the individual and therefore of the whole nation is recognised
today and the League of Nations have repeatedly made attempts to stop
the use of habit forming drugs in all parts of the world. In India the pro-
blem of drug addiction is perhaps more widespread than in many other parts
of the world. This will be evident from the fact that whereas in other civi-
lised countries, the drug addiction rate of the population is from 0.1 to 0.2
per cent., in India, in some areas the rate may be from 1 to 3 per cent. In
1926, an inquiry was started by the Indian Research Fund Association, and
a large volume of work has been done both in the laboratory as well as in
the field. The drugs of addiction so far studied include opium, alcohol,
cannabis indica, cocaine, chloral hydrate, etc. In 1895, a Royal Com-
mission of experts reported that moderate indulgence in opium eating in
India led to no injurious effects. This conclusion has been definitely
disproved now and there is no doubt that opium eating produces in Indians
deleterious actions similar to those produced in Europeans. A treatment
of opium habit by administration of lecithin by the mouth and intravenous
injections of glucose proved successful in producing a cure rate in 70 per
cent. in a series of 200 addicts. The field studies included extensive general
surveys of the extent of different drug habits in various parts of India.
Opium addiction is definitely decreasing but cocaine addiction which is of
comparatively recent origin shows signs of increasing. The study of drug
addiction in India has revealed many interesting facts which are of import
ance from medical and sociological points of view.
VI. Chemotherapeutic studies on anti-malarial and anti-dysenteric
remedies.
The effectiveness of a number of natural and synthetic anti-malarial
remedies was tested on Indian strains of malaria and in monkeys infected
with a hemoprotozoon called Plasmodium knowlesi. The concentration
attained by atebrin in the circulating blood at different intervals of time in
relation to parasite count was worked out. A. new and comparatively easy
method for the estimation of atebrin in small quantities of blood was
devised and it was shown that the highest concentration occurs between
½ h o u r t o 2 a f t e r t h e i n j e c t i o n . T h e n u m b e r o f p a r a s i t e s d i m i n i s h e s
markedly during the period when the concentration of the drug in the blood
is highest. The same relationship does not hold good in the case of quinine
and therefore it is probable that the nature of action of these two anti-
malarial remedies is different, one acting directly on the parasites whereas