_ Wissenschaft, etc.,” by A. Tschirch, Pharm. came) 1831, ate 9 
THE MISSION OF PHARMACOGNOSY. 3 
impossible to become accurately acquainted, characterizes the 
medicine and pharmacy of the European middle ages' and the 
condition of popular medicine still existing among the Asiatic 
nations. 
The primary object of modern pharmacognosy is to scrutinize 
all the evidence offered by botany, zoology, and pharmacy re- 
garding the medicinal agents under consideration, to arrange 
this material in scientific form, and by an appropriate and com- 
prehensive representation to subject it to a closer examination. 
It is only by this means that pharmacognosy assumes the form 
of a branch of knowledge which is of equal importance to both 
pharmacy and medicine. Upon a thorough acquaintance with 
medicinal substances, and their proper treatment, the practical 
success of pharmacy is largely dependent, so that a deeper study 
of the science of pharmacognosy may reasonably be expected of 
the pharmacist. He will therefore confer honor upon himself 
and his profession if he advances somewhat farther even than is 
unavoidably required by his immediate interests. It is, how- 
ever, scarcely possible to sharply define the boundary between 
the daily round of duties and scientific studies, and, indeed, this 
is not only impracticable, but even undesirable. 
Pharmacognosy should therefore comprehend, to a certain 
degree, all that pertains to a monographic knowledge of medi- 
cinal substances.* The consideration of these substances from 
the above-outlined standpoint of natural science is to be supple- 
mented by purely historical and geographical references, and 
such as are connected with the history of civilization, together 
with commercial relations. All this should be made to assume 
a rich, animated, and symmetrical form which, in many cases, 
may become quite attractive. Among this copious material, how- 
ever, those characters must be prominently pointed out which 
can lead to a rapid, approximate valuation, whenever it is 
* Compare ‘‘ Die Frankfurter Liste” in Archiv der Pharm., 201 (1872), _ 
pp. 453-511, and ‘‘ Das Nérdlinger Inventar,” ibid., 211 (1877), p. 97. 
* The aims of modern pharmacognosy have recently been thoroughly : oe 2 
explained in the essay: ‘‘ Ueber die Bedeutung der Pharmacognosie als 
