PREFACE. 



Pharmacographia, the word which gives the title to this book, 

 indicates the nature of the work to which it has been prefixed. The 

 term means simply a writvag about dmi.<js ; an<i it has been selected 

 not without due consideration, as in itself distinctive, easily quoted, 

 and intelligible in many languages. 



Pharmacographia, in its widest sense, embodies and expresses the 

 joint intention of the authors. It was their desire, not only to write 

 upon the general subject, and to utilize the thoughts of others ; but 

 that the book which they decided to produce together should contain 

 observations that no one else had written down. It is in fact a record 

 of personal researches on the principal drugs derived from the vegetable 

 kingdom, together with such results of an important character as have 

 been obtained by the numerous workers on Materia Medica in Europe, 

 India, and America. 



Unlike most of their predecessors in Great Britain during this cen- 

 tury, the authors have not included in their programme either Phar- 

 macy or Therapeutics ; nor have they attempted to give their work 

 that diversity of scope which would render it independent of collateral 

 publications on Botany and Chemistry. 



^\Tiile thus restricting the field of their inquiry, the authors have 

 endeavoured to discuss with fuller detail many points of interest 

 which are embraced in the special studies of the pharmacist ; and at 

 the same time have occasionally indicated the direction in which 

 further investigations are desirable. A few remarks on the heads 

 under which each particular article Ls treated, will explain more pre- 

 cisely their design. 



The drugs included in the present work are chiefly those which are 

 commonly kept in store by pharmacists, or are known in the drug and 

 spice market of London. The work likewise contains a small number 



