INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. XV 



attracted much attention, and the chemistry of plants has been carefully examined 

 by Liebig, Miilder, and Johnston. The consideration of the phenomena con- 

 nected with germination, and the nutrition of plants, has led to important con- 

 clusions as to sowing, draining, ploughing, the rotation of crops, and the use of 

 manures. 



The relation which Botany bears to Medicine has often been misunderstood. 

 The medical student is apt to suppose that all he is to acquire by his botanical 

 pursuits, is a knowledge of the names and orders of medicinal plants. The 

 object of the connection between scientific and mere professional studies is here 

 lost sight of. It ought ever to be borne in mind by the medical man, that the 

 use of the collateral sciences, as they are termed, is not only to give him a great 

 amount of general information, which will be of value to him in his after career, 

 but to train his mind to that kind of research which is essential to the student of 

 medicine, and to impart to it a tone and a vigour which will be of the highest 

 moment in all his future investigations. What can be more necessary for a 

 medical man, than the power of making accurate observations, and of forming 

 correct distinctions and diagnoses? These are the qualities which are brought 

 into constant exercise in the prosecution of the botanical investigations, to which 

 the student ought to turn his attention, as preliminary to the study of practical 

 medicine. In the prosecution of his physiological researches, it is of the highest 

 importance that the medical man should be conversant with the phenomena 

 exhibited by plants. For no one can be reckoned a scientific physiologist who 

 does not embrace within the range of his inquiries all classes of animated beings ; 

 and the more extended his views, the more certain and comprehensive will be 

 his generalizations. 



To those who prosecute science for amusement, Botany presents many points 

 of interest and attraction. Though relating to living and organized beings, the 

 prosecution of it calls for no painful experiments nor forbidding dissections. It 

 adds pleasure to every walk, and affords an endless source of gratification, which 

 can be rendered available alike in the closet and in the field. The prosecution 

 of it combines healthful and spirit-stirring recreation with scientific study ; and 

 its votaries are united by associations of no ordinary kind. He who has visited 

 the Scottish Highlands with a botanical party, knows well the feelings of delight 

 connected with such a ramble feelings by no means of an evanescent nature, 

 but lasting during life, and at once recalled by the sight of the specimens which 

 were collected. These apparently insignificant remnants of vegetation recall 

 many a tale of adventure, and are associated with the delightful recollection of 

 many a friend. It is not indeed a matter of surprise, that those who have lived 

 and walked for weeks together in a Highland ramble, who have met in sunshine 

 and in tempest, who have climbed together the misty summits, and have slept 

 in the miserable shieling should have such scenes indelibly impressed on their 



