PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION 



The. present volume is, in a slight degree, a revision of a work written 

 by the author in 1879, entitled "Organic Materia Medica and Pharmacal 

 Botany." This work has been out of print a number of years, and until 

 recently the author has had no time to rewrite it in such a manner as 

 seemed necessary to bring it up to the present standard; it has also been 

 deemed advisable to change completely the model of the former work. 

 The task now accomplished presents not so much a revision, as a new 

 treatise. 



Two methods of classification of drugs are here brought into use a 

 classification according to physical characteristics, and a classification 

 according to botanical relationships both of which are, though occupy- 

 ing separate divisions of the book, so brought together by a system of 

 numbering that the place of the drug in each of the classes is at once 

 apparent. The author would here suggest that those who make use of 

 the work in connection with a cabinet of specimens, should have the 

 containers in the cabinet numbered to accord with numbers in the book, 

 in order that students may readily find specimens for identification 

 and study. 



It is perhaps needless to state that the nomenclature and general 

 character of the text is made to conform with the present standard The 

 United States Pharmacopoeia; but the capitalization of specific names 

 derived from proper nouns has been discarded, in accordance with present 

 botanical practice. The descriptive heading of each of the official drugs 

 has been in most cases given in the pharmacopceial language. The 

 unofficial drugs are distinguished in the text by the use of a different type 

 and by a different setting of the article from that which treats of the 

 official drugs. In this connection the author desires to give credit to 

 Mr. George S. Davis, who has aided in the work by placing at the author's 

 disposal most excellent material regarding rare unofficial drugs, and the 

 use of material from his publication, credited under Bibliography. 



The scope of the work, it will be seen, embraces not only the official 

 drugs of the vegetable and animal kingdoms, but a vast variety of un- 

 official drugs, some of which are of rare occurrence in the market. These 

 have been included because of the greater field this inclusion gives for 

 pharmacal and botanical study; the greater variety of forms presented to 

 the student of pharmacognosy, the wider will be his range of observation. 

 It is hoped that in the 624 drugs mentioned, the student or instructor 

 will be able to make a selection which will be ample to supply material 



vii 



