MATERIA MEDICA. 



ever, labours under still stronger objec- 

 tions. Instead of being 1 too diffuse, it is 

 too contracted, for we may defy the 

 warmest supporter of the Darwinean 

 school to simplify and arrange. the whole 

 of what is included in the preceding- clas- 

 sification, or that ought to be so included, 

 under the present. But it has a fault still 

 more prominent ; and that is, it is adapted 

 to an individual nosology, we mean the 

 nosology of the author himself; and this a 

 nosology, which in some of its divisions 

 is perhaps founded on mere fancy, and 

 consequently has no chance of a perma- 

 nent or general adoption. His inverten- 

 tia and revertentia depend upon actions, 

 which to say the least of them are highly 

 doubtful, and have for some years been 

 gradually sinking into disbelief. 



Between these two extremes we have 

 had a variety of arrangements of late 

 years, one of the best of which, perhaps, 

 is Dr. Kirby's, published in a small tract, 

 entitled, " Tables of the Materia Medica," 

 which, with a chemical and a miscella- 

 neous division, consists of eighteen classes; 

 but to both of which we cannot but ob- 

 ject ; to the first, as it enters too deeply 

 into the department of pharmacy, for a 

 mere list of the materials of medicine ; 

 and to the second, as evincing a careless- 

 ness, or want of methodizing talent, 

 which we should not have expected, and 

 a total departure from every system what- 

 ever. We shall nevertheless avail our- 

 selves of its general merit as far as we 

 may be able, and endeavour to correct its 

 deficiencies. 



There is, however, another point to 

 which we must advert before we proceed 

 to our classification : and that is the no- 

 menclature by which the different sub- 

 stances ought to be distinguished. Till 

 of late, from the use of different nomen- 

 clatures by different colleges of medicine, 

 and an absurd intermixture of several of 

 them by some writers, the whole has been 

 a scene of perplexity and confusion. 

 Within the last six or seven years, how- 

 ever, a disposition has been progressively 

 evinced to simplify and generalize the 

 technology, and render the descriptions 

 more accurate. The language of Linnaeus 

 has been resorted to as by common con- 

 sent, throughout the three kingdoms of 

 animals, vegetables, and minerals ; and 

 though the chemical vocabulary of La- 

 voisier has not yet been generally intro- 

 duced, it is daily gaining ground in the 

 publications of individual writers, and has 

 been admitted in its utmost latitude into 

 one or two of our collegiate pharmaco- 



poeias. The college of Edinburgh, as 

 it has long led the way as a medical 

 school, has also taken vhe lead in this in- 

 stance, and has the honour of having first 

 composed a pharmacopoeia, in the pure 

 and unmixed language of science, by its 

 last edition, published in November 1804. 

 The Dublin College has followed its ex- 

 ample, by a very excellent specimen alte- 

 rum, published about six months ago ; 

 and at length the College of London, sti- 

 mulated by such noble incentives, has also 

 roused itself, and is on the point of re- 

 editing its own pharmacopoeia, with the 

 modern improvements, of the greater part 

 of which we are even now able to avail 

 ourselves, from the possession of one of 

 the few copies which have been worked 

 off" as specimens, and circulated amidst 

 the members of the college, and the best 

 informed medical practitioners, for the 

 purpose of marginal remarks, before the 

 publication of the work in a finished state. 

 In its general nomenclature, it will be 

 found not to vary essentially from the no- 

 menclature of the Edinburgh pharmaco- 

 poeia, and especially in that part of it 

 which relates to the Materia Medica, the 

 immediate object before us. 



We freely confess our surprise, that, 

 from the errors resulting from a promis- 

 cuous use of weights and measures, no- 

 thing either general or very decisive, has 

 been attempted by either of the two new, 

 or the projected pharmacopoeia. It would 

 have added largely to the reputation of 

 the intended edition of the London Col- 

 lege, if it had adopted the decimal and 

 applicable mensuration of the French In- 

 stitute, at the same time that it consented 

 to admit the French nomenclature. It has 

 not, however, been altogether inactive 

 upon this subject, for it has thrown away 

 the unscientific and indecisive measure of 

 drops, and has instituted that of grains in 

 its stead, so that a drop in the forthcom- 

 ing edition will be found to answer to a 

 grain, in the same manner as a pint an- 

 swers to a pound, the Troy weight being 

 still continued as heretofore : and of 

 course a scruple will intimate twenty 

 grains of liquids as well as of solids. We 

 shall only observe further, that the Edin- 

 burgh College has expressed an intracta- 

 ble abhorrence of all measures of medi- 

 cines whatsoever, and in consequence has 

 rejected their use in every instance : so 

 that in the Edinburgh forms, the liquids 

 of every kind are supposed to be em. 

 ployed by weight alone. 



In the ensuing classification we have 

 been anxious to give our readers a gene- 



