CDC 



Journal of Pbarmacology, 



Devoted to the Advances Made in Materia Medica in its Branches. 



Pharmacy^ Pharmacognosy^ Chemistry, Botany, Pharmaco- 



Dynamics, Therapeutics and Toxicology. 



Published for the Alumni Association of the College of Pharmacy of the City of New York, 



by Gillespie Bros., Stamford, Conn. 



Vol.. Vii. 



NOVEMBER, 1900. 



No. II. 



The Teaching of Materia Medica. 



By Walter G. Smith, M. D. 



In bidding you a hearty welcome to the meetings of this Section 

 I desire, at the same time, to express my grateful acknowledgement of 

 the honor done me by the Council of the British Medical Association 

 in inviting me to act as your President. 



It is twenty-five years since the Association has held its annual 

 meeting in East Anglia, and I confidently expect that this meeting, 

 convened in the closing year of the nineteenth century, will be pro- 

 ductive of much pleasure and profit to all who take part in it. 



The title of our Section is Pharmacology and Therapeutics. When 

 we consider that therapeutics dates from the beginnings of medicine, 

 and that the ultimate aim and meaning of all our medical education 

 and scientific culture is the alleviation of sufifering and the cure of 

 disease, does it not seem suq^rising that it was not until the year 1884 

 that, at the suggestion of Dr. Whitla, a separate section of therapeutics 

 was instituted at the Belfast meeting? 



And I have to note, not only the tardy official recognition of thera- 

 peutics, but also the fact that it has not enjoyed fixity of tenure, for, 

 in i8c)o, at the Birmingham meeting, with its 12 sections, an address on 

 therapeutics was, it is true, delivered by Sir. W. Broadbent. but no 



LiBRAR 



NEW V- 



BOTA^. 



OARI'h 



Being an address delivered at the opening of the Section of Pharma- 

 cology and Therapeutics at the annual meeting of the British Medi- 

 cal Association at Ipswich, July-August, ipoo. 



