Medicine. 311 



tlon of this metal as a remGdy in a multitude of 

 diseases/ and especially in malignant fevers, may 

 be considered as a memorable event in the annala 

 of medicine. Those who hav^e most distinguished 

 themselves by recommending the use of mercurial 

 preparations in the latter class of diseases, are Drs. 

 Rush and Chisholm. 



The great extension of the use of Opium in the 

 eighteenth century deserves particular notice; but 

 the principles of this extension, and the variety of 

 cases in which it has been lately employed, are 

 too numerous to be detailed. 



Digitalis has long held a place in the materia 

 medica; but its efficacy in certain diseases, parti- 

 cularly in dropsy and pulmonary consumption, has 

 been clearly known but a few years. For much 

 information respecting the virtues of this powerful 

 vegetable, we are indebted to the publications of 

 Drs. Withering, Beddoes, and others. 



The use o^ Lead, particularly in various external 

 applications, has been better understood, and more 

 frequently employed, within the last half century, 

 than before. Those who have been most distin- 

 guished by their inquiries into the medical virtues 

 of this substance are M. Goulard, of France, and 

 Dr. Aiken, of Great-Britain. 



Many of the best preparations of Antimony now 

 employed by physicians, were either w^holly un- 

 known, or little used, prior to the eighteenth cen- 

 tury. The important station they now hold in 

 medical prescriptions is well understood. 



Several of the mineral and vegetable Poisons 

 have been either first introduced into the materia 



p The use of Mercury In the Small- Pox was resorted to, in the Ameri- 

 can Colonies, lirst in 1 745, when it was employed with success, by Dr. 

 Thomas, a respectable practitioner of Virginia, and by Dr. Muirison, an 

 eminent physician of Long-Island, in the province of New- York. S.cc Drj 

 Gale's Dissertation an Small-Pox^ quoted by Dr. Hvxu.vm. 



