The
primitive man used the skins of animals he had slain to protect his own
skin. In the course of time he--or more probably his wife, for it is to
the women rather than to the men that we owe the early steps in the arts
and sciences--fastened leaves together or pounded out bark to make
garments. Later fibers were plucked from the sheepskin, the cocoon and
the cotton-ball, twisted together and woven into cloth. Nowadays it is
possible to make a complete suit of clothes, from hat to shoes, of any
desirable texture, form and color, and not include any substance to be
found in nature. The first metals available were those found free in
nature such as gold and copper. In a later age it was found possible to
extract iron from its ores and today we have artificial alloys made of
multifarious combinations of rare metals. The medicine man dosed his
patients with decoctions of such roots and herbs as had a bad taste or
queer look. The pharmacist discovered how to extract from these their
medicinal principle such as morphine, quinine and cocaine, and the
creative chemist has discovered how to make innumerable drugs adapted to
specific diseases and individual idiosyncrasies.
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