Pharmaceuticals derived from plants include taxol, ipecac, quinine, digitalis, atropine, codeine, cocaine, ephedrine, etoposide, morphine, yohimbine, vinblastine, vincristine, and my own favorite, caffeine.
I've watched a documentary about acupuncture filmed in China by physicians from Harvard Medical School who went in right after we started being allowed to go to China in the early 1970's. The most remarkable part was a woman who was having open heart surgery with acupuncture as the anesthetic. She was awake during the operation, lying on her side, talking, and taking occasional sips of tea. Maurice, I could see it with my own eyes. She was in a standard operating room, everyone was draped, the doctors were gowned and gloved, using sterile technique, I could see the open surgical wound in the side of her chest, see into it, and I could see that she was awake and sipping tea calmly. I saw it in the early 70's, too, so I know it wasn't computer generated or fiddled with. I was a surgical tech back then, so I had seen many surgical procedures myself.
>>I doubt that my ancestors were painting themselves blue<<
I assumed you were of British ancestry. Actually, the Europeans were weaving cloth thousands of years ago, too. |
