192 
* Having taken a view of the objects of a course of 
Lectures on Materia Medica and Therapeutics, as well as 
a cursory survey of their History, I come now to the 
third division of my subject, that is, the best mode of 
studying, as well as of teaching them. Though this is a 
subject I shall afterwards have to detail, you cannot but 
allow, considering only the multitudinous details to be 
collected and arranged, that, the task which I have under- 
taken is one, at least, of considerable labour. Knowing, 
however, that difficulties were never yet surmounted by 
those who had not the courage to encounter them, so I 
have not attempted to conceal from you, or from myself, 
the extent of the field to be traversed, though called upon 
to describe its varied riches and multiplied uses, before 
there has been scarcely time enough to take a survey of 
its boundaries. I hope, nevertheless, by attention to 
method, and by determined industry, to be able to bring 
together sufficient of what is necessary, with enough of 
what is new, to ensure that your time may not be mis-spent. 
Hearing me dilate upon the extent and difficulties of the 
subject, it will perhaps have occurred to you to have heard 
Materia Medica and Therapeutics stated as the most 
easily treated department of the Medical curriculum. I 
know not whether this be from the limited view that is 
taken of the subjects which they embrace, or from the 
high qualifications of the present members of the profession ; 
but I feel my own burden much increased by the way in 
which these subjects are now taught by my friends, Drs. 
Thomson and Christison, Mr. Pereira, and others. 
The multitude of subjects necessarily embraced will be 
obvious to any one consulting any of the standard works on 
Materia Medica and Therapeutics, as our Pharmacopoeias 
and Dispensatories, both English and American, with our 
* Here the Lecture is resumed as originally delivered. 
