Dr. Grateloup on the utility of Botany in Medicine. 3U 



ferred. It is very probable that as soon as a substance has been 

 found to have a deleterious effect on these animals, it ought to 

 be regarded as injurious to man. Essays made with much pru- 

 dence and care on sick persons, or even men in perfect health, 

 have subsequently proved whether it ought to be consigned 

 amongst the poisons, or placed as a remedy amongst the other 

 articles of the Materia Medica. We ought to cite, as remark- 

 able instances of experiments, those of Professor Stork, on 

 the Conium, Acomtum, Colchicum, Hyosciamus, &c. ; 

 those of Doctor Alston, on the narcotic effects of Opium ; those 

 of Withering, Horn, Fowler, Parkinson, on the Digitalis 

 purpurea ; those of Greding, Hufeland, Munch, and Mayerne, 

 on the Atropa Belladonna ; those of Horn, Hoffmann, Brug- 

 natelli, on Camphor, &c. &c, 



I will here terminate these general observations. It seems to 

 me that independently of the actual utility of botany in medi- 

 cine being undoubted, we may conclude, from all that has been 

 said, that in order to obtain a solid notion of the medical pro- 

 perties of plants, we must of necessity require. 



First. The assistance of the law of botanical analogy, es- 

 tablished between the families and genera of plants, in order to 

 be able to judge, in the first instance, of their general properties^ 



Sicondly. Tli> ;i-M>tance offered by chemical analysis, whirh 

 reveals the constituent principles of plants or of their products. 



And, tJiirdly. The assistance resulting from medical expe- 

 rience, winch giref a knowledge of the mode of action of me- 

 dicinal articles; ami, as a necessary consequence, of their par- 

 ticular or ipeoififl actions. 



