Medicine, S05 



Baudelocque, and many others, whose names are 

 only excluded by the brevity of our plan, have 

 thrown much light on the subject of obstetricks, 

 and do great credit to their profession. The ele- 

 gant plates of Dr. AVllliam Hunter, before men- 

 tioned, may also be considered as a great acqui- 

 sition to the theory and practice of this art. 



Materia medica. 



The knowledge of the nomenclature, the metho- 

 dical arrangement, and especially of the virtues of 

 those substances which are employed either for nu- 

 triment or the cure of diseases, must be considered 

 as forming a very important branch of medicine. 

 Accordingly it has received much of the attention of 

 physicians in all ages. But in no period of equal 

 length have inquiries on this subject been pursued 

 with so much accuracy and success, or the discove- 

 ries and improvements been so numerous, as during 

 the century under review. Many new articles, in 

 this period, have been added to the former cata- 

 logues ^ the properties of articles formerly known 

 and employed have become better understood than 

 before; the application of old remedies greatly ex- 

 tended; and the whole subject made to wear a 

 more scientific aspect. 



From the account which has been already given 

 of the state of the other branches of medicine, at 

 the close of the seventeenth century, the reader 

 will readily perceive that materia medica, so 

 closely connected with them, in its principles and 

 application, must have been, at the same period, 

 in a corresponding situation; perhaps it may even 

 be said to have been less cultivated at that time 

 than any other branch of medical science. But 

 soon after the commencement oi the eighteenth 



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