MATERIA MEDICA. 
Imtead of being too diffuse, it is too conr 
tracted, for we may defy the warmest sup- 
porter of the Darwinean school to simplify? 
and arrange the whole of what is included 
in the preceding classification, or that ought 
to be so included, under the present. But 
it has a fault still more prominent; and 
that is, it is adapted to an individual noso- 
logy, we mean the nosology of the author 
himself, and this a nosology, which in some 
of its divisions is perhaps founded on mere 
fancy, and consequently has no chance of 
a permanent or general adoption. His 
invertentia and revertentia depend upon 
actions, which to say the least of them are 
highly doubtful, and have for some years 
been gradually sinking into disbelief. 
Between these two extremes we have 
had a variety of arrangements of late years, 
one of the best of which perhaps, is Dr. 
Kirby’s, published in a small tract, entitled 
“ Tables of the Materia Medica,” which, 
with a chemical, and a miscellaneous divi- 
sion, consists of eighteen classes; but to 
both of which we cannot but object; to the 
first as it enters too deeply into the depart- 
ment of pharmacy, for a mere list of the 
materials of medicine ; and to the second 
as evincing a carelessness, or want of me- 
thodizing talent, which we should not have 
expected, and a total departure from every 
system whatever. We shall nevertheless 
avail ouselves of its general merit as far we 
may be able, and endeavour to correct its 
deficiencies. 
There is, however, another point to 
which we must advert before we proceed 
to our classification : and that is the nomen- 
clature by vvhich tlie different substances 
ought to be distinguished, Till of late, 
from the use of different nomenclatures by 
different colleges of medicine, and an ab- 
surd intermixture of several of them by 
some writers, the whole has been a scene 
of perplexity and confusion. Within the 
last six or seven years, however, a disposi- 
tion has been progressively evinced to 
iimplify and generalize the technology, and 
■ender the descriptions more accurate. The 
mguage of Linnaeus has been resorted to as 
y common consent, throughout the three 
ngdoms of animals, vegetables and mi- 
rals ; and though the chemical vocabu- 
y of Lavoisier has not yet been generally 
"oduced, it is daily gaining ground in 
publications of individual writers, and 
been admitted in its utmost latitude 
one or two of our collegiate pharma- 
eias. The college of Edinburgh, as 
it has long led the way as a medical school, 
has also taken the lead in this instance, 
and has the honour of having first compos- 
ed a pharmacopceia, in the pure and un. 
mixed language of science, by its last edi- 
tion, published in November 1804. The 
Dqblin College has followed its example, 
by a very exeelleut specimen alterum, pub„ 
lished about six months ago ; and at length 
the College of London, stimulated by such 
noble incentives, has also roused itself and 
is on the point of re-editing its own phar- 
macopoeia, with the modern improvements, 
of' the greater part of which we are even 
now able to avail ourselves from the posses- 
sion of one of the few copies, which have 
been worked off" as specimens, and cir- 
culated amidst the members of the college, 
and the best informed medical practitior- 
ers, for the purpose of marginal remarks, 
before the publication of the work in a 
finished state. In its general nomenclature 
it will be found not to vary essentially from 
the nomenclature of the Edinburgh phar- 
macopoeia, and especially in that part of 
it which relates to the Materia Medica, 
the immediate object before us. 
We freely confess our surprise that from 
the errors resulting from a promiscuous 
use of weights and measures, nothing either 
general or very decisive, has been attempt- 
ed by either of the two new, or the pro- 
jected pharmacopoeia. It would have add- 
ed largely to the reputation of the intended 
edition of the London College, if it had 
adopted the decimal and applicable men- 
suration of the French Institute, at the 
same time that it consented to admit the 
French nomenclature. It has not, hov- 
ever, been altogether inactive upon this 
subject, for it has t!'.rown away e un- 
scientific and indecisive measure of drops, 
and has instituted tliat of grains in its stead, 
so that a drop in the forth- coming edition 
will he found to answer to a grain in the 
same manner as a pint answers to a pound, 
the Troy weight being, still continued as 
heretofore : and of course a scruple will 
intimate twenty grains of liqnicis as well 
as of solids. We shall culy observe further, 
that the Edinburgh College has expressed 
an intractable abhorrence of all measures of 
medicines, whatsoever, and in consequence 
has rejected their use in every I'lstance; 
so that in the Edinburgh forms, th.e liquids 
of every kind, are supposed to be employ- 
ed by weight alone. 
In the ensuing classification we have 
been anxious to give our readers a general 
