THE 
AMERICAN JOURNAL 
OF 
PHARMACY. 
JULY, 1838. 
ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 
ART. XX.— ON VERATRUM VIRIDE, WITH EXPERIMENTAL 
FACTS, TO SERVE AS A CHEMICAL HISTORY OF THE 
ROOT OF THIS PLANT. By Henry W. Worthington. 
(Jin Inaugural Essay. ) 
There is no field in nature more inviting to the inquirer 
than the vegetable kingdom, and in no other department has 
the laborer been better rewarded, not only from the brilliancy 
of the discoveries that have been made, but from their 
beneficial application. The development of proximate ve- 
getable principles may be regarded as constituting a new era 
in chemical research, and Pharmacy has received an impetus 
from their introduction, which has hardly been equalled at any 
'period of its history. 
Among these proximate principles we find the alkaloids, 
which, from their easy isolation and capability of being 
rendered subservient to the purposes of the physician, have 
become, in his hands, a new class of therapeutic agents, as 
powerful as they are convenient. 
Much of the lustre which this branch of science has 
acquired, is due to the pharmaceutists of France, Germany, 
VOL. iv. — no. ii. 12 
