Evening star., 1939-03-21

Notebook OF Science Progress
In Field, Laboratory
And Study
BY Thomas r. Henry.
Adventures Of . plant collector on q
Pacific ISLAND Of snakes" are related In
letters to associates from DR.. Ellsworth
p. Killip, associate curator Of plants Of
the Smithsonian Institution. now on his
NTH botanical exploring expedition In
Northern South America.
The island Is Gorgona. OH the coast Of
Columbia. where the Government main-
tains = light house and which 10 In
habited only by . few fishermen who
stay close to the coast. The nora Of
this isolated spot 10 sparsely represented
In botanical collections and DR.. Killip
welcomed the opportunity to 60 there
on Government light house tender.
When he arrived he tried to negotiate
with natives for guide into the jungle
Of the interior which he describes AS
the thickest vegetation he had ever seen.
His request was met with blank amaze-
ment Nobody ever went into that
jungle, he was told. To do 10 was OK
tremely dangerous because snakes of
a deadly species were more abundant
there than anywhere else In the world.
Killip persisted and finally succeeded
in hiring one of the sailors on the tender
to act as brush cutter. The party
entered the jungle by way OF q stxea,n
which could be navigated with Email
boat. On the urgent advice of the ma
tives he took with him poison sup
piled by German drug manufacturer"
which was supposed to make the serpents
keep their distance.
1T worked" Killip says He en-
countered no snakes during his brief
excursions on land but saw several from
the boat, an indication that the natives
might not be altogether wrong. The
volunteer brush cutter took no chances.
In spite of these difficulties, Kilip
reports, no obtained the largest collec-
ton OF Gorgona plants yet made The
plant explorer now has returned to tho
main land where he Is carrying on his
search for rare plants in areas which
have been little explored by botanlsts In
the past. He had planned to make an
extensive survey of the flora Of the Choco
region OF Northern Columbia, but has
been unable to get there because Of 4
record drought The water in the
streams penetrating this area 10 50 low
that they are unnavigable.
Largely without physicians and them
selves ignorant of the natural history of
the country. early white colonists in
North America turned to their neigh
bors. the friendly Indians, for medicines.
Some Of these were quite effective,
even II highly irrational in the light Of
medical knowledge Of that day. Thus
Indian medicine came to have q high
repute which has persisted in some parts
of the country to this day. and the
barker peddling them Is 4 well-known
character at country fairs.
Indians themselves still use their own
medicines in many places and herb lore
has persisted among them. DR.. William
N. Fenton, ethnologist of the Smithso-
nian Institution, is conducting q study
OF the medicinal plants In use among
the Senecas Of Central New York. They
are one surviving branch of the great
1roquois family whose contacts with the
whites had far-reaching results on the
lives Of the early settlers.
DR.. Fenton Is seeking, SO far as posi-
BILE. complete botanical collection, ac-
curately classified, of the plants used by
the 1roquois and the purposes they were
believed to serve. The work was started
IN 1893 under grants from the Institute
OF Human Relations of Yale University
and was continued last year under grants
from st. Lawrence University and the
Allegheny School Of Natural History.
DR.. Fenton and his collaborators have
gathered $50 species of plants COM
monty used by the Senecas for medicinal
purposes. They constitute approximate
ly third Of all the species listed by
botanists for the Central New York re-
gion.
1roquois medicine, he says, was essen
TALLY philosophical The value of some
plants In various diseases had been de-
termined by actual experience over gen.
erations Such, for example, were hem
lock needles from which q tea could b
brewed which would cure scurvy, and
Virginia winterberry which acted rs .
cathartic. But the Iroquois medicine
man was not much concerned with ex-
perimental medicine.
From his point of view nothing grew
without purpose. This purpose could
be determined by analogy from obser-
vatlons OF its peculiarities Of growth,
shape and color Of its flowers, the places
where 1t was found. etc. Thus 4 plant
which grew very rapidly might have
been Used to promote growth in human
being, the growth properties supposedly
being transmitted by contact. A plant
with brilliant red blossom might have
been considered an antidote for con-
sumption with its pallor.
Even when the specific value of an
herb was known 1t would seldom be
used alone. The medicine man would
include with 1t some plant, probably
utterly worthless, which fitted better his
philosophical ideas. The plants were re-
earded, says DR.. Fenton, as Giving en-
titles and the hsrbalist regarded them