THE OHIO 



MEDICAL AND SURGICAL JOURNAL. 



—EXTRA.— 



TQ THE MEDICAL PROFESSION OF OHIO. 



The substance of the following paper, was communicated 

 to the "Fairfield County Medical Institute," at its July sitting, 

 with a request by resolution, that I should furnish them with a 

 list of those plants that are known, or considered medicinal ; 

 the histories and qualities of which are not enumerated in 

 Wood & Bache's truly national Dispensatory of the United 

 States. They requested also, that I should annex the synony- 

 mous and common names by which they are known throughout 

 the country. I find by reference to Riddell's Synopsis of the 

 Flora of /he Western States, made in 1834 ; Sullivant's Cata- 

 logue of Plants in the vicinity of Columbus, Ohio, 1840 ; and my 

 own Herbarium, that we have about 387 species of plants, 

 possessing medicinal qualities, growing wild or in a natural- 

 ized state in Ohio. One hundred and twenty-three of these, 

 are embodied in the great work before referred to; 64 are em- 

 braced in the Appendix, leaving about 200 species hardly even 

 mentioned. 



Of those noticed in this paper, it can hardly be expected 

 that all, on examination, will be found worthy of a place in 

 our national Pharmacopeia; but the properties of a large pro- 

 portion of them, are very partially known: and an enumera- 

 tion of them with a brief indication of the medical activity of 

 the natural orders to which they belong, will greatly facilitate 

 the enlightened investigator in his path of discovery. 



Since the sitting of the Institute, I find my name reported in 

 the July No. of the Ohio Medical and Surgical Journal, for 1849, 

 as having been appointed Chairman of a "Committee on Ma- 

 teria Medica and Botany in Ohio," by the Ohio State Medical 

 Society, with the permission of selecting my associates. To 

 carry out, in any considerable measure, the views and inten- 

 tions of the Society, in the establishment of the committee, it 

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