HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



241 



CURIOSITIES IN DRUGGING. 



By ERNEST INGERSOLL. 



N E ot the most 

 complete and well- 

 defined depart- 

 ments in the Great 

 National Museum 

 at Washington, is 

 that of Materia 

 Medica. It was 

 begun under the 

 care of Dr. J. M. 

 Flint, of the Navy, 

 who was assigned 

 to special duty at 

 the Museum for 

 this purpose ; and 

 it now occupies 

 one of the outer 

 tier of rooms im- 

 mediately beyond 

 the lecture - room 

 and library, and 

 numbers several thousand specimens. These are 

 arranged on panels and tablets, or in glass jars, are 

 illustrated by a great number of coloured drawings, 

 and an extension of the department in the way of 

 books relating to it, forms one of the most important 

 parts of the library. 



Among the first things which Dr. Flint set himself 

 to do was to compile a list of all the articles of 

 materia medica in use in the world. These words 

 mean simply "the material of medicines," and the 

 question of good or bad is not involved. His list was 

 simply of those substances which have been employed 

 as drugs, under some sort of recognition. 



As the history of medicine was a part, specimens 

 have been sought of the remedies peculiar to former 

 times, and some remarkable notions in medical 

 practice have been disclosed. The medicines and 

 instruments employed by savage and semi-civilised 

 races were also taken in, and among these the 

 greatest curiosities of the whole room are to be found ; 

 but the impression grows strong upon the observer, 

 No. 275.— November 1887. 



that there is a very vague line of separation between 

 the medical practice of savagery and that of civilisa- 

 tion. A separate section, under the plan, has been 

 made to illustrate this vague inter-territory called 

 "medical superstitions," and Dr. Flint remarks in 

 one of his annual reports that " illustrative objects 

 may be found not only among the unlearned and 

 uncivilised, but also in the most highly civilised 

 communities, and in use by the most intelligent 

 individuals." 



But nothing foreign to medicine, surgery or 

 hygiene — raw materials, preparations, instruments, 

 and appliances — is excluded from the design of the 

 department, which already has made long headway 

 toward its perfection. 



The specimens of materia medica at hand have been 

 classified under four heads : 



1. Animal products. 



2. Vegetable products. 



3. Products of fermentation and distillation. 



4. Inorganic products. 



The regular series begins with an exhibit illustrative 

 of the forms in which medicines appear in commerce 

 and are prepared for administration by the pharmacist, 

 such as roots, rhizomes, tubers, and all other forms 

 of crude vegetable drugs ; the metals, metallic salts, 

 mineral and vegetable acids, and other chemical 

 products ; and the pharmaceutical preparations, both 

 solid and liquid, such as pills, plasters, tinctures, 

 sirups, and the rest. These answer as so many 

 examples of pharmaceutical terms, and embrace no 

 less than twenty-nine crude vegetable drugs, nine 

 classes of chemical products, and fifty-four methods 

 of preparing medicines for administration. Then 

 follow the materials which, when complete, will fully 

 illustrate the pharmacy of the world. The classifica- 

 tion begins with animal products, a section which 

 embraces some of the strangest manifestations of 

 doctoring extant. Vertebrate animals yield castor (a 

 highly odorous secretion peculiar to the male of the 

 musk-deer of the mountainous interior of Africa), ox- 

 gall, deer's horn (powdered and burnt), neat's foot oil, 



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