2 Medicine. [Chap. IV. 



greatly extended; 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 con- 

 nected with them in its principles and application, 

 must have been, at the same period, in a correspond- 

 ing 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 com- 

 mencement of the eighteenth century the views of 

 medical philosophers began to be much more cor- 

 rect and enlarged on this, as well as many other 

 subjects belonging to the healing art. About that 

 time the cardinal qualities^ and other jargon of the 

 Galenists; the distilledicaters, essences, quintessences y 

 and extracts, of the chemists; and many of the wild 

 opinions respecting the application and efficacy of 

 remedies, which resulted from mathematical and 

 mechanical doctrines, began to decline; While new 

 light, from various quarters, directed to more ra- 

 tional methods of experimenting and philosophising 

 on the subject. 



Tiie improvements which were made in the science 

 of Botany, in the course of the hist age, proved the 

 source of many important additions to the materia 

 medica. New plants of great medicinal value were 

 brought from every part of the globe. Vegetables 

 were ex^^mined, and their properties ascertained 

 by means of more numerous, patient, and enlight- 

 ened experiments than preceding naturalists had 

 attempted. The service rendered particularly to 



