194 
reference to their Physical characters and Chemical compo- 
sition, with only brief notices of their Physiological action. 
Thus, after noticing the nature, the physical and sensible 
properties of the substances constituting medicines; the 
elements of Pharmacy may be treated of,' describing first 
the Mechanical, and afterwards the Chemical operations of 
that department of our subject, with the different forms in 
which medicines are administered, as well as the surfaces 
to which they are applied. That the terms may be intel- 
ligible, which, even in this mode of treating the subject, 
are necessarily employed in describing each article ; it will 
be necessary to follow the above, with a few lectures on the 
different modes in which medicines act; as well as the 
classes in which they are arranged, when considering them 
only with respect to their Therapeutical uses. We shall then 
be prepared to enter on the substantive part of the course, 
and may commence with the Inorganic, and proceed to the 
Organic kingdom of Nature, or from the Mineral to the 
Vegetable and Animal kingdoms; introducing under each 
substance the several Pharmaceutical Preparations, of 
which it forms the principal ingredient, or from which 
they derive their names. 
In the second portion of the course, the Physiological 
action of Medicines may be more fully entered upon, in 
conjunction with their Therapeutical uses ; when the several 
substances which had been treated of according to Natural 
History classifications, will be arranged with reference to 
their properties as agents for the cure of disease. This part 
of the course may be fitly preceded by general observa- 
tions on the important subjects of Climate, Regimen, 
Diet, and concluded with others on the Theory and Art 
of Prescribing. 
Having alluded to difficulties, it would ill become me, 
however, to be alive only to these, sensible as I am of 
