PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS, ix 
of our country, it has always been supposed there were some worthy 
of cultivation for the table. This has heretofore been prevented, 
in consequence of our ignorance of the identical plants, or precise spe- 
cies, which were used by the savages. The travels of Lewis and Clarke, 
have put usin possession of the Indian names of many native dietetic 
articles, and these names have occasionally been accompanied by im- 
perfect descriptions. Not much more therefore than conjectures, could 
be expected to arise from such informal and unscientific accounts ; 
and indeed, little else has resulted, on this subject, from the rich op- 
quence of the cloak which has been thrown over hiscollections. Strange as it may ap- 
pear, it is not the less true, that not a single one of these manuscripts, not even his 
lectures on Materia Medica,* has ever seen the light. The public is yet to be inform- 
ed what has become of the industrious collections of that eminent man ; and it is sin- 
cerely hoped they have not been recklessly destroyed. Though the author of this work, 
his own nephew, was engaged in the same pursuits which occupied much of the time 
and attention of the late Professor, not a single line of his manuscripts has ever been put 
into his hands, or seen by him; nor was his opinion even asked about the disposition of 
them. But on the contrary, he was refused a sight of such memorandums and notes as 
were asked to enable him to write an authentic account of his life, when called on so to 
do by the Philadelphia Medical Society, of which the Professor, at the time of his 
decease, was president. It has been deemed proper to make this public avowal, because 
it lias been mentioned to the author, that some persons supposed him possessed of all 
the papers and collections of the late Professor Barton, designing by such intimation, 
to deprive the author of whatever credit his persevering exertions, in iin! of dis- 
couraging and sgt obstacles, may have deserved. 
* The manuscript lectures on Materia Medica, were sold to Mr. Dobson, more than two years since, but 
have not yet been published, 
VoL, 1” 
