Am.  Jour,  phaxm.  i       jjie  American  Materia  M edica.  3 
January,  1910.    j  ° 
of  research  found  here  a  place  in  which  to  rest,  and  from  which  to 
radiate.  Credit  fo'r  their  achievements  those  who  have  achieved, 
be  they  who  they  may  or  where  or  when  they  lived,  but  yet  concede 
that  for  a  hundred  years,  during  the  burst  of  enthusiasm  over  the 
new  land's  productions,  the  greatest  activity  in  the  direction  of  my 
subject  clustered  about  this  spot. 
In  1808  appeared,  in  Boston,  the  first  Pharmacopoeia  of  Ameri- 
can physicians,  but  let  us  not  forget  that  in  the  very  building  wherein 
I  now  speak,  published  in  Philadelphia  (1778 ),  rests  the  only  known 
copy  of  the  first  Pharmacopoeia  published  authoritatively  in  America, 
under  the  auspices  of  the  government  of  the  United  States.  It 
emanated  from  Lancaster,  almost  a  suburb  of  this  city,  and  bore 
the  official  stamp  of  the  embryonic  nation.  Could  there  have  been 
a  more  precious  book  than  this,  issued  in  behalf  of  the  struggling 
government?  Since  the  publication  of  this  epoch-marking  book, 
a  volume  would  be  required  were  I  even  to  attempt  to  record  the 
titles  or  make  a  brief  summary  of  the  Philadelphia  publications  of 
world-wide  celebrity  on  our  subject. 
As  I  think  of  those  times  and  the  records  of  the  men  who 
accomplished  their  mighty  work  in  and  about  Philadelphia,  the 
names  of  the  participants  that  crush  upon  me  stand  second  in  im- 
portance to  none  in  America.  From  this  point  the  botanists  Pursh 
and  Nuttall  pursued  their  explorations,  and  we  all  know  the  im- 
portance of  their  contributions  to  the  study  of  the  flora  of  North 
America.  Here  Dr.  John  Morgan  became  conspicuous,  in  that  he 
was  the  first  American  physician  to  plead  for  the  separation  of  the 
compounding  of  medicines  from  the  process  of  medication,  which, 
to  use  the  words  of  Mr.  Wilbert,  he  felt  would  be  "  commended  in 
some  directions,  severely  criticized  in  others." 
In  Philadelphia,  about  1730,  John  Bartram  established  the  first 
American  botanical  garden,  and  near  here  his  cousin,  Humphrey 
Marshall  (1773),  established  the  second.  From  the  Jersey  land 
near  this  point,  Peter  Smith  began  (1780)  his  travels  down  into 
and  then  through  the  southern  country,  thence  back  to  Cincinnati, 
where  (1812),  under  the  title  "  Dispensatory,"  he  printed  the  first 
medical  book  issued  west  of  the  Alleghenies.  Need  I  call  to  your 
attention  the  two  Bartons  of  one  hundred  years  ago,  and  the  work 
they  accomplished,  that  of  B.  S.  Barton  (1798)  being  the  first 
American  attempt  at  a  printed  collection  of  the  American  materia 
medica,  for  that  of  Schoepf  (1787)  was  issued  in  Germany?  And 
