REPORT ON THE SECTION OP MATERIA MEDICA IN THE IT. S. NATIONAL 

 MUSEUM FOR THK YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, IMG. 



By H. G. BkyeRj M. D., TJ. S. Navy, Honorary Curator. 



In performing the somewhat peculiar and more or less difficult task 

 of arranging and classifying the collection of materia medica specimens 

 for the purpose of exhibition, two objects are constantly being kept in 

 mind, namely : (1) To make the collection both attractive and instruct- 

 ive to the general public, giving them an easy reference to any speci- 

 men on which they may desire information, and (2) to afford the stu- 

 dent of medicine and pharmacy the opportunity of studying materia 

 medica in all its details. 



Every specimen of drug on exhibition is accompanied with a small 

 but concise so-called specific label, which is more especially intended to 

 describe the drug itself as it appears in the market. This label will be 

 found attached to the square block upon which the bottle containing 

 the specimen is placed. A second kind of label, which may be termed 

 the generic label, is much larger, and the instruction which it is in- 

 tended to give comprises the characters peculiar to an entire genus. 

 The third label is also a large one, and gives a description of each larger 

 group of plants to which the specimens belong. This will be found at 

 the beginning of each new group in the exhibition eases. 



It is intended, finally, to have every specimen illustrated in the fol- 

 lowing way : (1) By a well-preserved and mounted herbarium specimen 

 of the plant from which the specimen is derived. (2) By a colored plate, 

 profusely illustrating not only the entire plant, in as nearly its natural 

 state as can be shown by plates, but also the anatomy of all its parts. 

 (3) By a picture showing tbe peculiar microscopical structure of the dif- 

 ferent constituents of each plant. Every one of these pictures will in 

 time be provided with a label which shall be descriptive of whatever 

 it is intended to elucidate. 



This work, of course, will require some time to fully accomplish. At 

 present we are by no means in the possession of all the colored plates 

 and herbarium specimens needed to illustrate every specimen in the 

 above-described manner, and their collection, in many instances, is a 



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