m 



Dr. Wight on the. Materia Medica. 



[July 



change : now, as the accompanying figure proves, we may even have 

 good coloured representations, and, I believe, at an expense little if at 

 all exceeding what similar ones would cost in England j say, for quarto 

 sized coloured plates, about 30 or 35 Rupees the hundred, and executed 

 in simple outline, in the manner of those I have already published in 

 the Journal, for less than half the sum.* We may now therefore fairly 

 assume, that, under the double advantage of enjoying the fostering aid 

 of the Supreme Government, and profiting by the flood of light which 

 the unceasing labours of vegetable physiologists has of late years cast 

 on the relationship existing between the natural affinities, botanically 

 considered, and the active properties of plants, the time has arrived 

 for making a rapid advance in this important department of medicine. 

 With these collateral aids, little more is required than industry and 

 judgment on the part of the compiler, to lay the foundation of a local 

 medical botany as perfect as any yet extant. That sufficient materials 

 for such a work are already in existence, I think I may with confi- 

 dence assume, from having myself, with but little care, collected a 

 considerable store, with the intention of undertaking the work on 

 my own responsibility, should circumstances favourable to its prosecu- 

 tion occur. These it has not yet fallen to my lot to enjoy ; and, hither- 

 to, the only advantage I have reaped in return for a heavy expenditure, 

 has been some experience of the manner in which, I think, it should 

 be executed. 



It only remains for me to add, as the deduction ftom the preceding 

 observations, that I consider it next to impossible, without the aid of 

 pictorial illustrations, to make any considerable progress in the know- 

 ledge of Indian Medical Botany, and that as these could now be sup- 

 plied at very moderate cost, the subject seems to be one meriting the 

 attention of government. For myself I am so thoroughly satisfied of the 

 utility, or rather the absolute necessity, of plates, towards aiding the 

 investigations of the naturalist, and more especially thooe of the tyro in 

 natural history, that I consider it almost a duty to publish, so soon as 

 circumstances will permit, a series of figures representing one or more 

 species of each of the natural orders defined in my peninsular flora, 

 with the view of facilitating the researches of those who (perhaps for 

 the first time) have given their attention to that method of arrangement 

 since the publication of that work. The principal obstacle to be sur- 



* This is cheaper than the Monthly botanical periodicals. The Botanical Magazine, 

 the cheapest of these, charges at the rate of £4 0 4 per 100 4to. plates with letter press 

 descriptions to each, and has a circulation of about 1400 copies. On so large an impressi- 

 on the cost of copper-plates and printing scarce exceeds a half-penny for each impression 

 the principal outlay therefore is the colouring and paper, which eannot be lessened by 

 repetition. 



