LECT. I.] AND PROGRESS OF BOTANY. 3 



tion of vegetable poisons on the animal system. 

 This branch of botanical science I would distin- 

 guish by the term VEGETABLE TOXICOLOGY. 



In making a rapid sketch of the rise and pro- 

 gress of the science of Botany, I cannot avoid 

 taking notice of that wonderful love of antiquity 

 which seems to be so congenial to the human 

 mind, that whatever bears the rust of past ages, 

 appears to rise proportionally in the esteem of 

 mankind. Hence every one is anxious to date 

 the origin of the particular art or science which 

 he professes, from the earliest times ; and to in- 

 crease the respect in which he would wish it to be 

 held by impressing upon it the stamp of antiquity. 

 Thus Tubal Cain has been regarded as the father 

 of Chemistry, and ^Esculapius that of Medicine : 

 in the idle hours of the Egyptian shepherds, the 

 sublime speculations of Astronomy are supposed 

 to have commenced ; and, if we were to indulge 

 Fancy in her flights, we might with equal truth, 

 perhaps, trace Botany to a period nearly coeval 

 with the creation of the human race. But such 

 conjectures, as they are vague and fanciful only, 

 cannot be useful or satisfactory even as objects of 

 simple curiosity ; and it is impossible to say what 

 was the state of the arts and the sciences in the 

 early ages, the oral records of which, for we 

 cannot suppose that any other existed, have long 

 since passed away, and left imagination to fill 



B2 



