Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
April,  1904. 
A  Symposium. 
i85 
all  have  noticed  another  cause  for  dualism — the  great  difference 
between  the  literal  and  liberal  rendition,  for  it  is  this  that  ofttimes, 
through  a  process  of  evolution,  creates  a  general  significance  out  of 
the  specific.  So  when  we  come  to  consider  these  three  terms : 
materia  medica,  pharmacology,  and  pharmacognosy — we  should  not 
lose  sight  of  the  prior  condition  of  service  in  the  mother  tongue  of 
the  component  units  or  words. 
(1)  Materia  Medica. — Here  we  have  two  Latin  simples;  the 
former  (matetia,  ce),  a  singular,  feminine  noun,  signifying  liberally — 
matter,  material,  stuff,  of  which  anything  is  composed,  in  the  very 
widest  sense;  the  latter  (medica,  us,  a,  um,),  an  adjective  with  femi- 
nine, singular  termination,  in  agreement  with  materia,  signifying 
literally — medical,  curative,  of  or  belonging  to  healing.  The  term, 
therefore,  means,  medical  matter,  medical  material,  medical  stuff, 
and,  although  written  in  the  singular,  the  word  materia  implies  col- 
lectiveness,  plurality;  hence,  curative  remedies,  agents,  be  these 
what  they  may.  In  pursuance  of  this  idea  we  refer  constantly  to 
the  matter  or  material  of  the  universe,  including  without  question, 
at  least,  all  that  is  unorganized,  and  possibly  equally  well  the 
organized.  Liberally,  the  term  is  accepted  as  including  everything 
employed  to  palliate  physical  suffering,  and  the  scientific  treatment 
of  such  agents  is  reduced  to  a  science  bearing  the  name.  "  Medical 
material  "  is  certainly  very  comprehensive,  and  a  work  titled  "  Mate- 
ria Medica  "  is  absolutely  without  restriction  as  to  quantity  and 
quality  of  its  contents,  so  long  as  all  included  substances  are 
believed  to  possess  curative  power.  Heat,  cold,  light,  darkness, 
electricity,  galvanism,  massage,  hydropathy,  simple  mechanical  ap- 
pliances are  all  within  its  scope,  just  as  much  so  as  the  more  im- 
portant organic  and  inorganic  drugs.  There  is  no  doubt  but  that 
in  the  earlier  days  of  medicine,  when  the  term  "  materia  medica  " 
was  selected,  it  was  intended  to  include  all  curative  agents  as  well 
as  all  important  knowledge  pertaining  thereto.  But  drugs  at  that 
time,  be  it  remembered,  were  by  no  means  so  well  understood  as  at 
present,  inasmuch  as  their  treatises  then  were  restricted  chiefly  to 
the  source,  physical  description  of  the  crude  parts  (botanically, 
chemically,  etc.),  doses,  acceptable  preparations,  method  of  manu- 
facture, etc.,  having  little  or  nothing  to  say  concerning  the  applica- 
cion  of  drugs  to  the  well  or  sick  organism.  The  original  science 
consequently  occupied  a  somewhat  limited  field  compared  with  that 
