24 PHOCEEDTNTiS OF THE 



II; will interest some ornithologists now present to know that 

 even Corvus contributed to the Materia Medica : — 



"Oorvns pica. Albo nigroque varius. Cauda cuneiformi." 

 Patients in tliose days drank "Aqua Picarum composita." 

 Tlie Ampliibia were considerable contributors, and were re- 

 corded after the invariable practice seen throughout the book. 

 First came the name and. specific diagnosis ; then the habitat ; 

 then the Pharmacopceial preparation ; then the quality, taste, 

 smell, &c. ; then the action ; and finally the uses. 



It is of course the botanical part of this Conspectus which is 

 the most valuable ; and it is a conscientious record and abstract 

 of the qualities, uses, and medicinal preparations of every known 

 plant which had, up to the time of the writer, been used in the 

 healing art. The classification is his own, and the terse generic 

 and specific diagnoses are eminently Linneau. 



How w ell Linnseus was read in the lore of therapeutics can be 

 appreciated after looking through a few pages of this book ; 

 and it is evident, from the notes to many of the species, that he 

 was eminently qualified to judge about the medicinal actions or 

 inertness of many vegetable drugs. The most remarkable part of 

 the book is the total absence of speculation; it is all record, on 

 a uniform plan, wdiether the object be animal, vegetable, or 

 mineralogical. The time which the compilation of this Conspectus 

 must have consumed was great ; and its extraordinary correctness 

 is one of tlie many testimonies of the exactitude and painstaking 

 of the great naturalist. 



The necessity for writing this Materia Medica did. not arise 

 from a desire to publish works on every subject capable of classi- 

 fication, but from the possibility of giving a practical bearing to 

 a course of lectures on the Diagnosis morborum. This was a 

 course which formed a part of LinniBus's duties as a Professor at 

 Upsala ; and it was not likely that he w^ould deliver it in a per- 

 functory manner. He classified the whole of the known maladies 

 of his day, 535 in number, as if they had been objects of natural 

 history. Linnaeus's work arranged diseases in eleven classes and 

 each one of these into orders and genera. 



There is no doubt that his correspondence with Sauvages of 

 Montpellier was mutually beneficial ; and Linnaeus was lecturing 

 on the subject when the work ' Les Nouvelles Classes des Ma- 

 Sadies ' appeared. In this work Sauvages endeavoured to define 

 and classify diseases from their constant and evident symptoms 

 only. His friend found this classification congenial, and indeed 

 the Art of Medicine admitted of no other scheme at that time, 

 for the causes of disease were very little understood. There 

 were many excellent points about the classification, which were 

 gradually accepted by subsequent nosologists. The definitions 

 of the genera were terse and very correct ; and it is interesting 

 to note that some severe diseases of that day are no longer 

 recognized amongst the ills that fiesh is heir to. 



One part of the classification may be of interest to those 



