Alkaloid use of Ephedra and opium poppies. Also, coca leaves have been used by South American Indians since ancient times. Extracts from plants containing toxic alkaloids, such as aconitine and tubocurarine, were used since antiquity for poisoning arrows. Studies of alkaloids began in the 19th century. In 1804, the German chemist Friedrich Sertürner isolated from opium a "soporific principle" (), which he called "morphium" in honor of Morpheus, the Greek god of dreams; in German and some other Central-European languages, this is still the name of the drug. The term "morphine", used in English and French, was given by the French
The Friend of God from the Oberland The Friend of God from the Oberland The Friend of God from the Oberland ("Der Gottesfreund vom Oberland", sometimes translated as "the friend of God from the Upland," or "the mysterious layman from the Oberland") was the name of a figure in Middle Ages German mysticism, associated with the Friends of God and the conversion of Johannes Tauler. His name comes from the Bernese Oberland. In "Story of the First Four Years of a New Life", Rulman Merswin writes: "Of all the wonderful works which God had wrought in me I was not allowed to tell a single word to