PHARMACOGR APHI A. 493 



REVIEW OF FLUCKIGER AND H ANBURY'S 

 " PHARMACOGRAPHIA." 



Pharmacographia : a History of the Principal Drugs of Vegetable Origin 

 met with in Great Britain and British India. By Friedrich A. Fliickiger, 

 Ph. D., Professor in the University of Strasburg ; and Daniel Hanbury, 

 F.K.S., Fellow of the Linnean and Chemical Societies of London. (Macmil- 

 lan and Co., 1874.) 



BY H. B. BRADY, F.R.S. 



THERE was a stir of anticipation and inquiry amongst pharma- 1874. 

 cologists when it first became known that Prof. Fliickiger and y a ture," 

 Mr. Hanbury were engaged upon a work of joint authorship. Nov. 19, 1874. 

 Speculation was busy as to what was to be the nature of the 

 book, to what particular objects it would be directed, what 

 extent of ground it would cover and so forth. Upon a single 

 point all were agreed, namely, that it would not be one of those 

 composite treatises on drugs organic and inorganic therapeu- 

 tics, pharmacy, and toxicology, enlivened by traditional botany 

 and old-fashioned chemistry, which have passed current amongst 

 us as " Manuals of Materia Medica." 



One generation after another of compilers has produced 

 volumes supposed to be suited to the wants of the time, in 

 which the same sort of information has been given, the same 

 errors perpetuated often in almost identical words, until the 

 very term " Materia Medica " has come to be looked upon with 

 suspicion by scientific men. Perhaps the origin of the short- 

 comings of the general run of such works may be traced to 

 the fact that they have often been written by practising physi- 

 cians who were lecturers in medical schools, and have been 

 designed primarily as handbooks for medical students. Nor 

 need it be a matter of wonder that, with no special facilities 

 for acquiring original information as to the history of drugs, 

 and with few opportunities for verifying the statements of 

 others, authors so situated were content to transcribe without 



