INTRODUCTORY LECTURE. 
315 
out here and there which have the stamp of novelty. You 
will observe that, I am now speaking of the general Materia 
Medica, exclusive of that which is the peculiar product of our 
native vegetation, and in which our contributions have been 
ample. To mention each individual case in which an old 
medicine may have received a new application at our hands, 
would be out of place on this occasion. Such notices belong 
to the special history of medicines, and will be introduced 
into my lectures under appropriate heads. There have, how- 
ever, been two discoveries of American physicians which me- 
rit particular notice, as they have been the means of introduc- 
ing, out of the mass of materials everywhere accessible, new 
and effective remedies into general use. One of these disco- 
veries is that made by Dr. Coxe, of virtues analogous to those 
of opium in the inspissated milky juice of Lettuce, which has 
consequently been introduced into the officinal catalogues both 
here and in Europe, under the name of Lactucarium ; the 
other is that by Dr. Stearns, of the State of New York, of very 
peculiar and highly important properties in Ergot, which 
have led to its universal adoption as an article of the Materia 
Medica. 
There yet remains another point of view from which to 
consider the Materia Medica of the United States. In every 
civilized country of Europe it has been considered indispen- 
sable, in order to a due regulation of the nomenclature and 
preparation of medicines, to establish a system of rules, which 
should have the sanction of law. Without the uniformity re- 
sulting from such pharmaceutical codes, no physician could 
depend on obtaining from the apothecary the same medicine 
or preparation under the same name, and infinite confusion 
with its consequent mischief would result. These codes are 
put forth, under the title of Pharmacopoeias, by colleges or 
other authorized bodies, and having the sanction of the go- 
vernment, constitute a part of the public law. Thus the Phar- 
macy of England is regulated by the London College of Phy- 
sicians through their Pharmacopoeia, that of Scotland in like 
manner by the Edinburgh College, and that of Ireland by the 
