HISTORY OF BOTANY. 79 



occasionally his enthusiasm carried him beyond all sustain- 

 able grounds, thus laying him open to much hostile criticism. 

 For instance, it is not a proposition that can be maintained 

 that plants falling into a certain natural order have in all 

 cases the same or similar effects, if taken into the human 

 stomach. Such a statement as the following in praise of 

 the natural 'system is not only exaggerated but absurd : — 

 "Its advantage in applying Botany to useful purposes 

 is immense, especially to medical men,* who depend 

 so much upon the vegetable kingdom for their remedial 

 agents. A knowledge of the properties of one plant 

 enables the practitioner to judge scientifically of the 

 qualities of other plants naturally allied to it, and there- 

 fore the physician acquainted with the natural system of 

 Botany may direct his inquiries, when on foreign station, 

 not empirically, but upon fixed principles, into the qualities 

 of the medical plants, which have been provided in every 

 region for the alleviation of the maladies peculiar to it.t . . . 

 Every one of these bears inscribed upon it the uses to which 

 it may be applied, the dangers to be apprehended from it, or 

 the virtues with which it has been endowed." Now sup- 

 posing for a moment we glance over the order Leguminosse 



^- Though formerly medical men were always botanists, this is not 

 now even generally the case, beyond the knowledge necessary to an 

 apothecary, nor excepting in rare circumstances would Botany be of 

 any special service to them in their profession. I do not write as a 

 medical man, neither did Lindley. 



f This is a cmious fancy, which would lead us to curious conclu- 

 sions. Thus we might infer from it that the most sterile lands had 

 the fewest diseases, and vice versa, in regular gradation ; or, that it is 

 an error in principle for us in England to use such medicines as opium 

 or quinine. If the statement is not a fact we might fancy another 

 provision of Providence : that medicines, as well as many other things 

 that we find of great use, are so distributed over the world as to oblige, 

 or induce, the different members of the human family to help one 

 another. 



