314 
INTRODUCTORY LECTURE. 
Of the work which came next in the order of time it does 
not become me to speak except in the most general terms. 
The United States Dispensatory, which has been adopted as 
the text-book of the ensuing course of lectures, made its first 
appearance in 1833. I may, perhaps, be permitted to say of 
that portion of the work executed by my friend, Dr. Bache, 
which concerns for the most part the chemical articles, that it 
is marked by all the scrupulous accuracy, precision, and faith- 
fulness, which so favorably characterize the author in all his / 
relations. 
To complete the list of American works upon Materia Me- 
dica, it remains only to mention the " New Remedies" of 
my friend and co-laborer in this field of medicine, Dr. Dun- 
glison, which was published in 1839. This is a valuable 
treatise, containing much information in relation to new or 
little employed remedies, and might advantageously lie on 
the table of every practitioner, with a view to occasional re- 
ference. 
Having seen what has been written upon the subject of 
which we are treating, we are naturally led to the inquiry, 
what has been done or discovered in this country towards 
the advancement or improvement of the science of Materia 
Medica, independently of the additions it has received from 
our indigenous products. The amount of our contributions in 
this way is not large. Most medicines have been so long sub- 
jected to all sorts of trial, in every variety of disease, that to 
fall upon a really new physiological property or thera- 
peutical application is a rare occurrence; and even where an 
individual may imagine that he has made some interesting or 
important discovery, the chances are great that it is a long 
known and recorded fact, of which he was ignorant from de- 
ficient means of information. In the short annals, therefore, 
of our independent medical history, we are to look for very few 
improvements of the kind alluded to. Still, by running our 
eye over the medical Journals we shall find that our soil has 
not been entirely barren. From among the great mass of sug- 
gestions and reported experience, a few facts might be picked 
