324 Frost's Oration before the Medico-Botanical Society. 



pounded, and mixed with salt. The composition is then put into stopped 

 bottles, and is commonly known by the name of ' Cayan Butter.' A mix- 

 ture of sliced cucumbers, eschalots, or onions, cut very small, a little lime 

 juice or Madeira wine, with a few pods of bird pepper, well mashed and 

 mixed with the liquor, seldom fails to excite the most languid appetite. 

 In the West Indies, it is called a man-dram. A useful and elegant con- 

 diment is made, by dissolving common salt in a strong infusion of capsicum, 

 previously strained, and afterwards allowing it to crystallise." 



No. XII. for December, contains 

 .Mentha viridis, Pulegium, and Piperita, used for distilling peppermint 

 and pennyroyal water. — Convolvulus jaldpa. the root of which furnishes 

 the well-known Jalap. — 5tyrax officinale, which produces the fragrant 

 balsam called Storax ; and Polygonum bistorta, the root of which is a 

 powerful astringent, and is occasionally used in fevers. — The figures in this, 

 as in the preceding numbers of Medical Botany, are beautifully coloured, 

 and, if equalled, are not surpassed by those of any botanical periodical of 

 the day. 



Frost, John, Esq. F.A.S. F.L.S. F.H.S. of Emanuel College, Cambridge, 

 Member of the Royal Institution of Great Britain, of the Royal Asiatic 

 Society of Great Britain and Ireland, Secretary to the Royal Humane 

 Society, Director of the Medico-Botanical Society of London, Honorary 

 Member of the Medical Society of Baltimore, and Lecturer on Botany 

 at St. Thomas's Hospital : An Oration delivered before the Medico-Bo- 

 tanical Society of London, at the commencement of their Eighth Session, 

 Friday, 12th October, 1827. London. 4to, pp.27. 



This Society, which has now existed seven years, and contains among its 

 officers some names of the highest respectability, was " instituted in conse- 

 quence of the almost total neglect of the study of botany by the members 

 of the medical profession." Botany, as a branch of science, Mr. Frost 

 considers as having claims of the first importance on the attention of medical 

 men. The object of the Medico-Botanical Society, therefore, is to show 

 that the medical student ought to study plants scientifically ; that the uses 

 and effects of plants are imperfectly known, and that this defect ought to 

 be remedied. A farther object is to promulgate such discoveries as are, 

 from time to time, made with regard to the application of plants to the 

 curing of diseases. 



It is certain that medical men, in general, know very little of botany ; 

 and, from a letter to Mr. Frost, by Sir Anthony Carlisle, at once an eminent 

 surgeon and able philosopher, given as a note to the Oration, it would 

 appear that a knowledge of that science was calculated to render the study of 

 medicine essential services. Sir A. Carlisle is " sanguine enough to believe 

 that the vegetable kingdom comprises remedies for all our bodily disorders, 

 short of those necessarily incurable alterations of structure in vital parts, 

 which forbid all rational hope. Vegetable drugs possess the remarkable 

 and, perhaps, the exclusive power of acting directly upon the brain and 

 nerves : and, hence, it is probable that specific remedies for Tetanus, or 

 even for Hydrophobia, may be yet concealed in plants ; and, although their 

 ultimate discovery may be accidental, the lately published Materia Medica, 

 by Dr. Ainslie, brings to our view so much extensive research and varied 

 learning, that we need not despair of success from professional enquiries." 

 Mr. Frost deserves praise for his zeal and activity in the cause of medical 

 botany ; but, as he is a friend of ours, we shall also question his taste on the 

 subject of adulation to certain exalted personages, who, but for their rank 

 and fortune, would never have been heard of. Perhaps, however, this is the 

 true way of catering for the power and influence of such persons; and 

 nothing is to be effected without power. 



