38 Dr. Graleloup on the utility of Botany in Medicine. 



Hippocrates, Theophrastus, Dioscorides, Galen, Aetius, 

 were the first amongst the ancients who endeavoured to recog- 

 nise medical properties by their taste. And amongst the mo- 

 derns, Kcenig, Johnston, Femel, Cartheuser, Walter, and 

 Linnaeus, have published excellent Dissertations on this subject. 

 The last of these authors establishes that plants having the same 

 taste are probably endowed with similar properties. It is thus 

 that bitter vegetables (amara) are only strengthening and anti- 

 septic ; the sweet substances (dulcia) are laxative ; those which 

 are acrid (acra) are heating and irritating ; the acerba are astrin- 

 gent ; the acids are refreshing ; the oily ones lubrefiant. 



It is the same with the application of the olfactory nerves to 

 discover the agreeable or fcetid properties of vegetable sub- 

 stances. Linnaeus has also consecrated a Dissertation to this 

 subject ( Amcen. acad, vol. II. p. 365), wherein we observe that 

 aromatic plants (aromaticae) increase the nervous influx, and ac- 

 celerate the circulation of the humours ; that the fragrants 

 stimulate and strengthen the weakened nerves ; that the tetricae, 

 with a disagreeable and foetid odour, calm the nervous system, 

 and the hircina? are aphrodisiac ; while the alliaceae provoke 

 transpiration, and are anthelmintic, &c. 



Chance has also led to several very useful discoveries. We 

 are indebted to it amongst the Indians for the febrifuge properties 

 of the Peruvian Bark. But these discoveries are very rare and 

 always imperfect ; those also which result from an analysis by the 

 taste and smell are not sufficient, and might lead us into serious 

 errors, if exclusive confidence was placed in them. Moreover, 

 this knowledge is too closely allied with chemical analysis to be 

 separable from it. This last, united with the trials in medicine, 

 offers none of the inconveniences attendant upon all other means, 

 particularly when preceded by researches founded on the analo- 

 gous relations of vegetables. 



In order to direct with success medical experiments, it has 

 been thought necessary to make the first essays on domestic 

 animals, the organization and habits of which are more closely 

 allied to those of man. Cats and dogs have generally been pre- 



