306 Medicine. 



century the views of medical philosophers begail 

 to be much more correct and enlarged on this, as 

 well as many other subjects belonging to the heal-^ 

 ing art. About this time the cardinal qualities^ 

 and other jargon of the Galenists; the distilled 

 xvafers, essences, quintessences and extracts of the 

 chemists; and many of the wild opinions respect- 

 ing the application and efficacy of remedies, which 

 resulted from mathematical and mechanical doc- 

 trines, began to decline; while new light, from 

 various quarters, directed to more rational methods 

 of experimenting and philosopbizing on the sub- 

 ject. 



The improvements which were made in the 

 science of Botany, in the course of the last age, 

 proved the source of many important additions to 

 the materia medica. New plants of great medi- 

 cinal value were brought from every part of the 

 globe. Vegetables were examined, and their pro- 

 perties ascertained by means of more numerous, 

 patient and enlightened experiments than pre- 

 ceding naturalists had attempted. The service 

 rendered, particularly to this branch of the materia 

 medica, by Chomel and Geoffroy, of France; 

 by VoGEL, of Germany ; by Linn^tius, and his pupil 

 Behjgius, of Sweden; and by Alston, Withering, 

 WooDViLLE, and others, of Great-Britain, are 

 generally known. All these writers have treated 

 of plants, with a special reference to their medical 

 uses, and the greater number of them have de- 

 livered formal systems. But besides what was ef- 

 fected by their inquiries, our knov/ledge of the 

 subject has perhaps been still more increased by 

 many of the other illustrious botanists mentioned in 

 the preceding chapter. For while these latter have 

 laboured to distinguish plants from one another, 

 and to present them in a convenient method, few 

 "bf them have failed to pay some attention to their 



