PROSPECTUS 



OP 



GOOD'S 



MATERIA MEDICA ANIMALIA. 



A PERIODICAL. 



Five Numbers farm a Part, published Quarterly, in January, March, June, September, 

 and December, and these parts form, a Volume. Subscription, Three, Dollars a year, 

 strictly in advance. 



OF all departments of science there is perhaps no single one capable of exercis- 

 ing such an advantageous influence on the mind of its cultivator as Natural History. 

 In consequence, therefore, of the very favorable reception given by the public to his 

 Materia Medica Botanica, the author now proposes to offer a work on the same 

 plan, a MATERIA MEDICA ANIMALIA, embracing the scientific analysis, natural 

 history, and chemical and medical properties and uses of the substances that are 

 the products of Beasts, Birds, Fishes, or Insects. The whole to be illustrated by 

 colored engravings of original drawings taken from nature. 



Natural History has been too generally shunned as a science of hard names and 

 intricate classification for those who in the pursuit of knowledge seek a source of 

 refreshment and relaxation. In order, however, to become acquainted with the 

 structure and character of the living beings that furnish so many important sub- 

 stances useful and necessary to man, the naturalist arranges or classifies them, 

 placing together those which have most in common. for one class, and separating 

 those which are widely different for another. Classification, therefore, is not the 

 object of Natural History, but the means of gaining that object, and it is very easy 

 by the means of this first division (the Scientific Classification) of the work to enter 

 upon many interesting inquiries relating to the subject without the slightest knowl- 

 edge of it. 



The Natural History of each subject introduced in this publication will lead those 

 who may be disposed to approve and patronize our undertaking to a pursuit which 

 cannot fail to prove a source of interest and improvement. It will be adapted as 

 much as possible to the general reader who has little information on the subject, 

 and it will omit, therefore, those topics of high but less general interest which may 

 be found fully treated elsewhere. 



For the Chemical and Medical Department, recourse has been had to every work of 

 reputation to which access could be obtained ; and as much useful information re- 

 garding each of the subjects treated of has been brought together as could be con- 

 veniently crowded into a small space. The descriptions are selected from the best 

 authorities, in some cases without alterations, but in others altered, corrected, or 

 condensed, so as to present as great a uniformity of phraseology as possible. As 

 the work is from its very nature a compilation, the only originality that can be 

 claimed by the author is in the selection and arrangement of his materials. 



The extreme difficulty and great expense of executing the Colored Plates, at once 

 in an accurate and elegant style, can only be appreciated by those who have actu- 

 ally attempted something of the same kind. It is gratifying, however, to find that 

 the" general execution of the plates of the Materia Medica Botanica has met with 

 the public approbation, a fact of which the favorable notices of the press and the 

 large subscription list afford ample evidence, and, it is hoped, a guaranty for what 

 may appear in future. 



All communications should be addressed (postage paid), 



PETER P. GOOD, 

 North Cambridge, Middlesex Co., Mass. 



