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ON THE IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY OF BOTANY 

 TO MEDICINE. 



By C. Johnson, Lecturer on Botany at Guy's Hospital.* 



Reverting to the state of the medical profession some twenty or 

 thirty years back, and the ignorance of too many of its self-elected 

 practitioners, of the most essential requisites for a pretender to the 

 healing art, a knowledge of the anatomy and physiology of the hu- 

 man frame, and the symptoms and treatment of the various dis- 

 eases by which its functions are liable to be interrupted and im- 

 paired — the denizen of the present time has much reason to congra- 

 tulate himself upon the revolution which it ha« undergone since 

 that period — a revolution that has contributed towards rendering 

 even the uncertain tenure of mortality less precarious, by securing 

 to him the advice and assistance of persons expressly qualified, by 

 their education, for that purpose. The impudent system of quack- 

 ery, so often held up to ridicule at the present day, was certainly 

 not without its parallel formerly in the so-called medical pro- 

 fession, when, after a longer or shorter period spent in pounding 

 and compounding, the capability of administering both simples and 

 compounds seemed naturally to follow. The lengthened and im- 

 portant course of studies required at the present day, does not 

 wholly preclude the possibility of a man of inferior talent en- 

 tering the profession, but we have still the satisfaction of knowing 

 that a complete blockhead has not the same opportunity that he 

 once had, of placing himself in competition with the man of ability 

 and liberal education. 



Of the various branches of knowledge that bear upon medical 

 science, Botiany seems to have been the most backward in arresting 

 the attention of those entrusted with the superintendence of medical 

 education. The improvement of this latter has been progressive ; 

 and the impression of the high importance of those studies that led 

 to a knowledge of the structure and functions of the animal body, 



* The following paper was read before the Medico^Botanical Society, 

 London, on the first meeting of the present session, Nov. 10th, 1835. 



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