4 INTRODUCTION- 



alphabetical series. Whereby this Volume majr become a 

 work by itself, or a kind of Lexicon of our Medical Plants. 



9. This Lexicon will include the whole of our actual 

 acquired knowledge on such useful plants, by blending 

 the officinal details of Schoepf and the early writers, with 

 those of the latter observers, besides many new and un- 

 published facts collected by myself during many years of 

 botanical and medical researches. 



10. I hope thereby to satisfy the wishes of those, who 

 have so well received the first volume, notwithstanding 

 its limited character, and have repeatedly urged me to 



complete this work- 



11. A list of our Medical equivalents was only promi- 

 sed by me and expected by them ; but I have done more, 

 and united together all our Medical plants, thus to be kept 

 all in view, that by future experiments, their respective 

 medical value may be further ascertained. 



12. It is a sad mistake of some Physicians to consider 

 the increase of officinal tools as an evil. The lazy pro- 

 pensity that would reduce our stock of remedies to a few 

 well known plants, is to be deplored as rendering the 

 science stationary and lessening our resources. 



13. A very different course is pursued by active and 

 zealous investigators of medical properties; they enlarge 

 our circle of usefulness, increase our medical means, in- 

 dicate all the available substitutes, and ascertain the best 

 equivalents in specific cases. 



14* In Europe they extend their researches to all the 



parts of the globe. The Society of Pharmacy of Paris 



has published a monthly journal since 1812, in which are 

 found numberless discoveries and Analyses of medical 



plants from all the parts of the world. 



15. In London a Medico-Botanical Society has been es^ 

 tabUshed, whose object is chiefly to ascertain the medical 

 Properties of all the plants, and to send to the most re- 

 mote regions in search of medical substances and equiva- 

 lents. 



16. It is therefore our duty at least to study our own, 

 and to increase rather than diminish our actual know- 

 ledge. Many of our medical substances are hardly known 

 as yet, and require careful investigation; others will be 

 discovered perhaps when inquiries and researches shall 

 not be discouraged by lazy teacher^^ 



