THE 
AMERICAN JOURNAL 
OP 
PHARMACY. 
APRIL, 1839. 
ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 
ART. I.— ON DELPHINIUM CONSOLIDA. 
By Thomas C. Hopkins. 
{Jin Inaugural Essay.) 
The catalogue of substances, termed vegetable alkaloids, 
is daily increasing; they are, generally speaking, the prin- 
ciples upon which depends the medicinal activity of the 
vegetables whence they may be derived; hence, the import- 
ance of the labors of the analytic chemist must be appa- 
rent to, and appreciated by the physician, as from their 
results he is enabled to administer a great variety of medi- 
cinal agents in an isolated state; thus avoiding the necessity 
of exhibiting, combined with the active principle, an adven- 
titious bulk of matter, which is not only useless, but, in some 
cases, very injurious. As a striking proof of the importance 
of his science, in a medicinal point of view, the organic che- 
mist need only point to the light which his labors have 
thrown upon the constitution of many agents which are indis- 
pensable in medicine, for an instance of which we might 
mention opium. 
But it is not required that, in order to be replete with 
interest, a newly discovered substance should should be en- 
voi,, v. — NO. i. 1 
