Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  ) 
Dec.  1875.  I 
Classification  of  Medicines, 
531 
A  MODERN  CLASSIFICATION  OF  MEDICINES. 
BY  C.  F.  RINGLER,   M.  D. 
The  various  efforts  made  from  time  to  time  by  writers  on,  and 
teachers  of,  Materia  Medica  and  Therapeutics,  to  establish  uniform 
systems  of  classification  of  medicinal  substances,  have  not,  as  yet,  as 
medical  and  pharmaceutical  literature  amply  shows,  been  rewarded  by 
much  appreciation  on  the  part  of  the  profession  ;  a  fact  deeply  to  be  re- 
gretted, if  we  consider  that  not  a  few  of  the  proposed  measures  are  pos- 
sessed of  qualities  of  merit.  However,  whether  this  disregard  be  due 
to  faulty  construction  and  lack  of  rationality  in  the  different  plans  sug- 
gested, or  whether  it  be  due — as  in  many  instances  it  doubtless  is — to 
too  hasty  condemnation,  it  matters  but  little,  since,  it  is  but  fair  to  pre- 
sume, the  day  that  is  to  give  us  a  system,  meritorious  enough  in  all  its 
detail  to  claim  and  secure  universal  adoption,  at  least  in  the  United 
States,  has  not,  as  yet  arrived. 
Modern  times  require  and  demand,  as  experience  teaches  and  obser- 
vations daily  demonstrate,  new  and  broad  ideas,  and  he  who  is  capable 
of  being  original,  whether  it  be  in  science,  art  or  literature,  generally 
succeeds  better  in  his  efforts  and  claims  to  general  recognition  than  he 
who,  though  perhaps  more  learned,  persists  in  advocating  what  was  once 
regarded  as  infallible.  Hence  it  is,  that  authors  like  Dr.  Headland,  of 
England,  and  other  similar  thinkers  and  investigators  in  the  field  of 
science,  probably  have  succeeded  better  than  many  others  in  their  endeavors 
to  bring  about  reformation  in  the  department  of  therapeutics  as  well  as 
in  the  classification  of  remedies. 
A  very  novel  and  ingenious  method  of  classifying  medicines,  based 
on  the  doctrines  of  Dr.  Headland,  is  the  plan  adopted,  and  employed 
for  some  years  past,  by  Professor  W.  H.  Thomson,  of  the  University 
of  the  City  of  New  York,  which,  as  it  may  prove  instructive  and 
interesting,  and  as  it  has  not,  as  yet,  to  the  knowledge  of  the  writer^ 
appeared  in  print,  is  given  here  briefly  and  condensed  as  follows  : 
Prof.  Thomson's  Classification. 
All  medicinal  substances  are  divided  into  two  great  classes,  each  class  being  sub- 
divided into  orders  and  sub-orders. 
Class  I. — Medicines  for  diseases  or  diseased  status. 
Order  I. — Restoratives:  Agents  which  are  natural  to  the  blood,  be- 
cause they  either  themselves  are  ingredients  of  the  blood  or  are  analo- 
gous to  such  ingredients. 
Order  2. — Specifics  :  Agents  which  are  not  natural  to  the  blood,  and 
therefore  poisonous. 
