4 
The  American  Materia  Medica. 
f  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
\    January,  1910. 
even  in  that  foreign  work,  may  not  Philadelphia  claim  a  full  share  of 
credit?  For  Schoepf  was  a  Hessian  soldier,  who,  on  the  surrender 
of  Lord  Cornwallis  at  a  point  relatively  near  where  we  now  stand, 
travelled  with  pack  on  back  from  New  York  to  Philadelphia,  from 
which  point  he  continued,  even  to  Florida,  searching  the  country 
throughout  for  materia  medica  specimens.  But,  as  already  stated, 
his  descriptive  book  was,  unfortunately  for  American  records,  writ- 
ten in  a  foreign  tongue  and  printed  (1787)  in  a  foreign  land.  In 
this  city  the  botanist  preacher  and  pioneer  Manasseh  Cutler,  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, received  his  doctor's  degree  and  became  a  member  of  the 
celebrated  Philosophical  Society  of  Philadelphia,  in  the  Proceedings 
of  which  (1785)  appeared  his  "Vegetable  Productions,  Botanically 
Arranged."  Here  Dr.  Benjamin  Rush  and  a  host  of  contemporary 
physicians  served  humanity's  best  interests,  as  they  saw  humanity's 
best  interests  under  the  limitations  of  that  day.  In  Philadelphia 
was  issued  the  rare  publication,  in  two  volumes  (1828-1830),  of 
that  scholarly  traveller,  C.  S.  R.  Rafinesque,  whose  scientific  qualifi- 
cations did  so  much  to  influence  educational  thought  and  action 
throughout  the  central  west.  I  love  to  think  of  him  as  a  professor 
in  Transylvania  University  of  Lexington,  Kentucky,  then  the  west- 
ern centre  of  art,  literature,  and  science,  a  colaborer  with  Audubon 
the  bird  painter  of  Louisville,  Kentucky.  To  Philadelphia  came  that 
conspicuous  searcher  into  America's  materia  medica,  that  antagonist 
to  all  forms  of  medication  established  "  by  right  of  authority," 
Samuel  Thomson,  to  discuss  with  Rush,  Cutler,  and  Barton  those 
things  pertaining  to  medicine  in  his  day.  Here,  under  the  auspices 
of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  and  the  Philadelphia  medical 
societies,  such  researches  were  made  as  those  of  Downey,  on 
sanguinaria  (1803),  and  many  other  theses  of  like  importance.  In- 
deed, notwithstanding  lost  opportunities,  the  influence  of  the  three 
great  institutions,  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  Jefferson  Medical 
College,  and  the  Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy,  in  such  as  this 
is  world  wide.  Wherever  in  this  land  one  touches  life  and  activity 
in  the  direction  of  botany,  pharmacy,  medicine,  materia  medica,  and 
allied  subjects  there  flow  their  united  currents. 
To  mention  even  briefly  the  records  of  the  men  no  more  among 
us,  who  come  to  mind  as  I  review  the  work  done  in  this  great  city, 
would  take  more  time  than  can  be  devoted  to  the  subject  concerning 
which  I  shall  speak.  I  must  not  attempt  to  name  men  yet  living, 
nor  yet  can  I  presume  to  pass  the  more  recent  but  not  less  important 
