80 EIGHTEENTH REPORT. 



used it for the Male Fern and the Female Fern. I will (juote a 

 few lines from the preface of this volume in order to show the at- 

 titude at that time of Sir John Hill, toward botanical science as 

 well as to show that he intended the volume to be of a botanical 

 nature as well as a medical dispensatory. 



"It grieves a man of public spirit and humanity, to see those 

 things which are the means alone of the advantages of mankind 

 studied, while in the end that advantage itself is forgotten. And 

 in this view he will regard a Culpepper as a more respectable per- 

 son than a Linnaeus or a Dillennius." ''That Botany is an use- 

 ful study is jdain ; because it is in vain that we know betony is 

 good for headaches, or self-heal for wounds, unless we can dis- 

 tinguish betony and self-heal from one another, and so it runs 

 through the whole study." 



"We are taught by it to know what plants belong to what names, 

 and to know that very distinctly ; and we shall be prevented by that 

 knowledge from giving a purge for an astringent, a poison for a 

 remedj^; let us therefore esteem the study of botany, but let us 

 know, that this use of the distinctions it gives is the true end of 

 it; and let us respect those, who employ their lives in establishing 

 those distinctions upon the most certain foundations, u])on mak- 

 ing them the most accurately, and carrying them the fartherest 

 possible; these are the botanists; but with all the gratitude we owe 

 them for tlieir labours, and all the respect we show them on that 

 consideration, let us understand them as but the seconds in this 

 science. The principal are those who know how to bring their 

 discoveries to use, and can say what are the ends that will be 

 answered by those plants, which they have so accurately dis- 

 tinguished." 



''The ])lants are arranged according to the English alphabet, that 

 the English reader may know where to find them : they are called 

 by one name only in English, and one in Latin; and these are their 

 most familiar names in those languages; no matter what Casper 

 or John Bauhine, or Linnaeus call them, they are here set down 

 by those names by which every one speaks of them in English ; and 

 the Latin name is added, under which they will be found in every 

 dictionary. To this is subjoined a general description of the plant, 

 if it be a common one, in a line of two; that those who already 

 know it, may turn at once to the uses; and for such as do not, 

 a further and more particular account is added." 



There is, then, no doubt that he intended the work to be botani- 

 cal, as well as useful from a therapeutic point of view, and it can 



