Naked Science Forum
On the Lighter Side => Famous Scientists, Doctors and Inventors => Topic started by: tangoblue on 28/07/2009 16:46:49
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Who was the first person to come up with the idea of drugs, and what was the first drug ever made?
Sorry, sorry, not drugs...medication if anyone wants to get technical.
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probaly some Shaman in a tribe somewhere...or something like that !
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Recreational drugs such as alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, kava-kava etc have been known about for many thousands of years I guess (and are largely naturally occurring or need only very low tech to obtain the effects).
With regard to "medicines" for health-benefits, there's been herbal remedies of various sorts for thousands of years also. The confusion is that only some of them work while others are little more than placebos.
Clove oil is a natural local-anaesthetic, and good for teething (although obviously it tastes quite bitter).
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There is evidence of some (non human) animals using plants as "medicines" so the question isn't who did it first, but what did it first.
http://www.tigerhomes.org/animal/animal-self-medication.cfm
There's also evidence of other animals using drugs recreationally.
This page says it doesn't happen.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/12/1219_051219_drunk_elephant.html
On the other hand, I'd like another explanation for this
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It is thought that one reason cats eat grass is to aid the regurgitation of fur, so I suppose you could say the grass is a 'medicine', of sorts, to them.
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It is thought that one reason cats eat grass is to aid the regurgitation of fur, so I suppose you could say the grass is a 'medicine', of sorts, to them.
To be fair that's more of an 'aid' than a medicine.
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Fungi produce antibiotics
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Early man must have been coughing and sneezing badly with a runny nose, when he must have gone wild about how to stop it. He must have seen the bacillus plant nearby, grabbed and chewed it. Chew, chew, chew, chew...must have rested for one night. Woke up the other day to find all his cold and cough gone with the wind! And he must have yelled like hell...Ooga Booga..Ooga Booga..that's how the concept of medication must have come into existence.