2 MATER i A MEDIC A AND THERAPEUTICS. 



to the science and art of healing, not merely by the 

 application of the materia medica to the treatment of 

 disease, but by the use of remedial measures of every 

 kind, including diet, climate, baths, clothing, nursing, 

 and the numerous other means which may be com- 

 bined to restore health, not the least important being 

 surgical treatment, or surgical therapeutics. This 

 definition is manifestly far too comprehensive for 

 our present purpose, which is concerned only with 

 medicinal therapeutics, i.e. the uses of the materia 

 medica. When this subject is discussed under the 

 head of each article of the materia medica, as it comes 

 before us in natural order, it is known by the name 

 of the special therapeutics of that article. Materia 

 medica and special therapeutics will constitute the 

 first part of the work. 



When the numerous and complex facts of special 

 therapeutics are collected and examined, certain great 

 principles may be educed from them, unfortunately 

 still very far from being perfect, but sufficient to fur- 

 nish the ground-work for a science of general thera- 

 peutics. This portion of our subject will be con- 

 sidered in the concluding part of the work. 



Certain other terms, variously related to the pre- 

 ceding, must here be defined : 



Pharmacodynamics (^dp^atcov, a -drug, and 



8ura/U9, power) is a convenient name for that part 



of our subject which relates to the action of drugs 



> upon the healthy individual, that is, the physiological 



action of drugs. In the first part of this work the 



: term " action " will simply be used to express the 



same meaning. 



Pharmacology (^dpfiaKov, a drug, that is, either 

 a medicine or a poison) is a term which has been 

 employed in two senses. With the older writers in this 

 country it is the science that relates to the chemical 

 and physiological properties of drugs, their selection 



