xii PREFACE. 



exa6l line of diftindtion that renders them Jalutarj 

 remedies or powerful poijons ? 



It is alfo highly neceffary to introduce a matter 

 perfedly applicable to the fubje6t of inveftigation, as 

 an impofition very little known (except to the fa- 

 culty); and is a palpable difgrace to that body, of 

 which every profefTor of medicine conftitutes a mem^ 

 ber. It is the common and fcandalous adulteration 

 of drugs, a pradlice too prevalent amongft the drug- 

 gijis in the metropolisy as well as the country -, who, 

 from the predominant pafTion of gain^ fo curioufly 

 adulterate, as to deceive even thofe who confider 

 themfelves adepts in deception. And this, to be the 

 better enabled to underfell their competitors, con- 

 vinced, by experience, the majority of farriers ad- 

 mit the medicines that can be purchafed cheapest 

 to be much the best. 



Thefe circumftances are not introduced or ha- 

 zarded as matters of opinion, but as palpable fads 

 that fpeak home to every reader of judgment or ex- 

 perience ; and fufficiendy indicate the necelTity of 

 circulating, from medical authority, the prefent im- 

 proved fyftem of modern compofition, univerfally 

 adopted and generally approved, to the approaching 

 extermination of empirical praElice and dangerous ex- 

 periment. This publication being undertaken to ren- 

 der as plain and familiar as poiTible a fubjedb that has, 

 through almoft every diflertation, been obfcured by 



the 



