io  The  American  Materia  Medica.       { A  j^SS,  wi™' 
But  enough  for  our  purpose.  Throughout  the  "  Collection " 
we  note,  as  has  been  stated,  that  remedial  agents  thought  of  as  mem- 
bers of  the  American  materia  medica,  and  used  both  by  the  "  em- 
piricists "  and  the  profession,  partake  of  energetic  natures  or  of 
strikingly  disagreeable  qualities. 
Consider  now  the  significance  of  what  we  have  before  us  in 
a  general  application  to  the  American  materia  medica.  Dr.  Barton 
was  a  cultured,  kindly  gentleman,  and  one  of  the  foremost  thinkers 
of  his  time.  He  was  conspicuous  as  a  botanist  and  was  therefore 
acquainted  with  America's  flora,  being  likewise  hand  in  hand  with 
men  versed  in  therapy  and  chemistry.  He  was  an  educated  man, 
tolerant  of  error  and  mistakes,  kindly  disposed  towards  empiricists 
and  those  engaged  in  domestic  medication,  a  listener  to  men  with 
information  or  experience  records  to  impart,  whether  or  not  they 
were  qualified  in  outside  lines.  He  was  in  touch  with  the  pioneer 
and  the  Indian,  as  well  as  adventurers  who  travelled  in  outside 
places,  and  he  came  into  close  communication  with  primitive  men 
and  with  nature.  Notwithstanding  all  this,  we  find  that  the 
"  Materia  Medica  Americana  "  of  Dr.  Barton,  known  as  Barton's 
"  Collection,"  breathes  in  its  every  page  the  touch  that  seems  to 
have  been  inherited  from  the  spirit  of  mediaeval  European  times,  in 
which  kindness  to  the  sick  and  charity  for  the  afflicted  were  too  often 
exceptional.  Confronting  evil  spirits,  although  not  designated  as 
devils,  seemingly  needed  to  be  expelled  by  energetic,  harsh  forms 
of  medication. 
PART  II. 
Beginning  of  a  Revolution. — Comes  now  the  spirit  of  unrest, 
that,  cradled  during  preceding  years,  about  this  date  took  possession 
of  the  people.  There  were  questionings  and  criticisms  of  "  author- 
ity "  in  medicine,  that  success  in  the  great  American  Rebellion  had 
perhaps  made  possible.  Inherited  methods  from  abroad,  political 
or  religious,  were  no  longer  accepted  merely  by  right  of  inheritance 
or  of  official  authority.  Rebellion  in  politics  and  by  arms  bred 
rebellion  in  expanding  thought.  Inherited  medicines  and  authorita- 
tive medication  as  practiced  by  physicians  became  a  storm-centre 
of  attack.  European  text-books,  European  remedies,  European  pro- 
cesses, surgical,  therapeutical,  pharmaceutical,  came  by  a  great 
part  of  the  people  to  be  viewed  with  suspicion.  The  rebellious  popu- 
lace, often  illiterate  and  destitute  of  scientific  education,  presumed 
to  criticize  the  methods  as  well  as  the  practice  of  the  medical  profes- 
