310 
INTRODUCTORY LECTURE. 
C. Barton of Philadelphia, and the American Medical Bo- 
tany of Dr. Jacob Bigelow of Boston, not that these produc- 
tions offer a claim to the highest rank as works of science or 
art, but that, considering the materials at command, the state 
of the arts among us, and the meagre patronage they were 
likely to receive, the enterprise, industry, zeal, and, I may 
say, success with which they were executed, and the great 
advance which they exhibit beyond whatever previously ex- 
isted here, are calculated to do honor to all of us as fellow 
countrymen of their authors. The design of their exe- 
cution appears to have been nearly simultaneously conceived, 
and they were both published in the year 1817. They con- 
sist of descriptions, somewhat ample, of our medicinal plants 
in all their interesting relations, with colored engravings of 
these plants, and all sorts of references. It might be invidious 
to discriminate between them; but if I were to venture an 
opinion of their relative merits, I should give the palm deci- 
dedly to the Philadelphia work upon the score of art and ele- 
gance of execution, while that of the Boston Professor might 
well dispute the precedence on the score of science and re- 
search. They have conjointly placed our native Materia Me- 
dica on a much higher footing than it stood upon before; and 
nothing has been subsequently published which could have 
the least tendency to throw them into shade. 
To bring our hasty review down to the present time, we 
have only to allude to the facts, that in the various treatises 
upon the general subjects of Materia Medica and Pharmacy, 
which have appeared in this country, our own medicines have 
received their share of attention; and that the Journals have 
continued to contribute occasional articles, either containing 
new facts, or presenting what was before known in a new 
light. 
There is, however, one circumstance connected with our 
present subject which it would be improper to pass over wholly 
without notice; I allude to the chemical analysis of many in- 
digenous medicines, which has resulted in a much more accu- 
rate knowledge of their composition, and a juster view of their 
