412 ANDROPHYSICS. 



CHAPTER II. 



PHARMACOLOGY. 



PHARMACOLOGY, is that branch of Androphysics which treats of 

 medicines ; including the modes of preparing them ; their properties ; 

 and their uses. The name is derived from the Greek ^ap^axoj/, 

 which may signify either a medicine or a poison : as many of the 

 most important medicines, from their powerful action, would neces- 

 sarily be poisonous to a healthy person, especially if taken in large 

 quantities. A medicine may be denned as any substance applied to 

 the animal system, either externally or internally, to cure disease, or 

 restore health. The art of comparing and compounding medicines, 

 is termed Pharmacy ; the person who prepares them, an apothe- 

 cary ; the book which describes them, a dispensatory ; and the me- 

 dicines themselves, as well the study of them, are sometimes termed 

 Materia Medico. The study of poisons, and their antidotes, is 

 called Toxicology ; and is here included in the present branch of 

 Androphysics. 



We think it proper to notice a prejudice which prevails, with 

 many persons, against the use of any mineral substance, as an in- 

 ternal medicine. This prejudice supposes that all mineral substances 

 are injurious to the system : whereas, even vegetables themselves, 

 contain several of the mineral medicines. The human body, in a 

 healthy state, contains salts of potassa, soda, lime, magnesia, and 

 iron; equally powerful with the salts administered by the physician. 

 Even our common salt, contains elements, which, when disunited, 

 would be as virulent and noxious to swallow as almost any com- 

 pound which the chemist can prepare. While, therefore, mineral me- 

 dicines, as well as vegetable, may be abused, by being given too fre- 

 quently, or in excess ; they are, doubtless, to be ranked among the 

 most important, and in some cases, as the only remedies, which can 

 combat the disease, or give the least promise of recovery. 



The preparation of medicines was, in the earliest times, made by 

 the physicians themselves : but it first became a distinct branch of 

 medical science, at Alexandria, about 400 B. C. Mantias, a pupil 

 of Herophilus, seems to have been the author of the first systematic 

 treatise on Pharmacology ; and even kings, as Attalus of Pergamus, 

 and Mithridates of Pontus, devoted themselves to the study and in- 

 vention of medicines. Heras, of Cappadocia, appears to have written 

 the first work on Pharmacy at Rome, 49 B. C. ; and And,romachus, 

 the physician of Nero, has left a description of the theriaca ; an 

 electuary, or treacle, composed of about seventy different ingredients, 

 long famous as an antidote against poison. Dioscorides wrote a work 

 on Materia Medica, evincing much discrimination ; and Galen pro- 

 posed a classification of medicines, founded, however, on his theory 

 of temperaments, and therefore, long since discarded. 



The Arabian alchemists introduced several new chemical medi- 

 cines; among which were mercury and its preparations: but the prin- 



