ORGANIC MATERIA MEDICA. 
417 
that a work of so much importance, one of constant reference and study, and 
one upon the right interpretation of which will frequently depend the issues of 
life or death, should be thoroughly and critically examined,—not only for the 
purpose of preventing any present inconvenience and danger, but also as a guide 
to the framers of subsequent editions. If we can ever hope to see an approach 
to a perfect pharmacopoeia, it is incumbent upon us, and all branches of the 
medical profession, to do all we can in our several positions to assist in the con¬ 
summation of so desirable an end. With an earnest desire to have explained 
and made easy to you the interpretation of a national work, and with the 
hope of doing something at least to its future improvement and development, 
the Council of this Society have requested their Professors, in their several de¬ 
partments, to deliver a series of lectures upon those parts of the British Phar¬ 
macopoeia which have an especial bearing upon their respective duties. Upon 
my colleague, Dr. Redwood, to whose province the details of the Pharmacopoeia 
especially belong, the more important portion of the labour will devolve, as he 
will have to bring before you the part which treats of the preparations and com¬ 
pounds. My duty will be to describe the Materia Medica, at least, that portion 
which refers to Organic Bodies ; and although I do not claim for this department 
so prominent a position as that coming under Dr. Redwood’s notice, yet I do 
claim for it your most careful and earnest consideration, for I need scarcely 
remind you, that unless you are able to recognise the various drugs ordered to 
be used in The British Pharmacopoeia, and to judge of their purity or otherwise, 
however perfect your knowledge may be of the preparations and compounds, you 
will not be in a position to apply such knowledge with any certainty of success. 
A thorough acquaintance with the articles of the materia medica should be, there¬ 
fore, your first chief consideration ; and it is with the hope of being instrumental 
in assisting you in its study that I shall in this and a succeeding lecture review, 
as far as time will allow me, the more important changes which the organic ma¬ 
teria medica of the present Pharmacopoeia has undergone when compared with 
the last published editions of the Pharmacopoeias of the United Kingdom, and 
also explain briefly the essential characteristics of those substances which may 
appear to me to require them, more especially those which are for the first time 
to be found in a British Pharmacopoeia, or which are new to the limits for¬ 
merly comprised by the London Pharmacopoeia. 
In the preface of the British Pharmacopoeia we read that, “the materia 
medica contains, in its simplest pharmaceutic form, every definite medicinal 
substance, whether obtainable in ordinary trade or prepared by the chemical 
processes in the second part, which the committee of the Council found, on 
careful inquiry, to be so far approved in practice as to be entitled to a place in 
a National Pharmacopoeia. Under each article are given :—1. A Latin Phar¬ 
maceutic name, by which it may be prescribed; and an English name, for 
use in describing the processes in the second part; 2. Its definition, together 
with its chemical symbol if it be a substance of definite composition, its botanical 
name if it be a plant, or its botanical source if procured from a plant; and 
also, in most cases, a reference to a correct figure of the plant, and a statement 
of the quarter whence the article is obtained ; 8. The characters by which it may 
be distinguished from all other articles of the materia medica; 4. The tests by 
which it may be ascertained to be of due strength, and free from known impurities 
or adulterations; and 5. The preparations of which it is an active ingredient.” 
It is remarkable that no allusion is here made to the mode pursued in treating 
of the articles of the materia medica which are derived from the animal king¬ 
dom. It is just possible that this omission may have been an intentional one, 
from the small number of animal substances which are ordered to be used in the 
Pharmacopoeia. We think, however, it is desirable for you to know, that 
animals and animal products are treated of in an analogous manner to plants 
and vegetable products. 
