A materia medica animalia, containing the scientific analysis, natural history, and chemical and medical properties and uses of the substances that are the products of beasts, birds, fishes or insects

Front matter

.

iv a h'

"4

Preface

Utility, more than either originality of contents or elegance of phraseology, has been the author's principal object in the following pages. He has endeavored to gather together in one volume, attainable at a moderate price, an arranged and easily consulted record of the entire Materia Medica Animalia, and he believes no attempt of a similar description has ever been made. To effect this object he has obtained aid from the best living authorities, as well as from their published works ; but he has not neglected those of other periods, where he has found in them directions upon which the moderns have suggested no improvements.

Of all departments of science, there is perhaps no single one capable of exercising such an advantageous influence on the mind of the cultivator as Natural History, in any of its departments. Every kind of knowledge has in it something that is valuable ; for even if it be of no direct utility in the ordinary concerns of the world, the acquirement of it is a useful exercise to the mental faculties, and the possession of it may operate in a most beneficial manner on the habitual feelings, and give a corresponding direction to the whole course of life.

It is desirable to cherish correct views of the benefits of different kinds of knowledge, that those may choose most advantageously for themselves whom the necessary business of life debars from the extended pursuit of it; and without undervaluing other particular branches of science, it may be safely affirmed that any department of Natural History is capable of affording more to interest and instruct, more to refresh and relax, the well-disposed mind, on a very shght acquaintance with it, than any other pursuit. Not a step can the learner advance in it, but he meets with wonders vi PREFACE.

previously unsuspected ; — not a height does he gain from which his prospect is clearer and more extensive, but his notion of these wonders acquires a yet more astonishing vastness. The more he linows, the more he desires to know, and the further he advances, the more does he perceive how much delight is yet in store for him.

The beneficent Creator of all has not only ordained, that every part of his works should be good, — should be adapted to answer its designed end, and should contribute in the highest degree of which it is capable to the well-being of his creatures; but he has made every thing "beautiful in its season," — he has so formed the mind of man that it derives pleasure from the contemplation of the glorious works around him. And it is therefore a worthy employment of our faculties to encourage this pleasure, and to place it upon a more solid and extended foundation than that afforded by the mere forms and colors of the objects around us, however beautiful they may be.

One great source of the pleasure derived from the inquiry into the structure and mode of existence of the living beings around us arises from the beautiful adaptation of their parts to each other, and of the whole to the place it has to occupy, which we can easily trace in every one. The philosopher who studies the motions of the heavenly bodies, and the station of this earth among them, traces these adaptations no less clearly, but it requires profound and long-continued study to be able to comprehend them aright. The naturalist, however, can discern them with far less research in every animal that breathes, and he meets with a constant variety, which prevents him from growing weary of the pursuit. Yet many are too frequently kept in ignorance of the wonders and beauties around them ; and whilst encouraged to learn many languages and read many books, they remain unacquainted with the bright volume of creation, the pages of which are daily and hourly unrolled before them, " written," to use the impressive words of Lord Bacon, "in the only language which hath gone forth to the ends of the world, unaffected by the confusion of Babel." But these pages are not to be read without some study; the alphabet and grammar must be learned, in order that their beauties may be rightly comprehended, and those who are entering upon the inquiry need to be rightly directed by those who are more advanced.

PREFACE. Vll

Natural History in general has been too much shunned, as a science of hard names and intricate classification, by those whose minds are occupied with the necessary employments and cares of the world, and who seek in the pursuit of knowledge a source of refreshment and relaxation. But the objects of its several departments are not commonly understood. The study includes the examination of the structure, habits, mode of existence, and particularly the uses of all the living beings which so thickly people the surface of the globe ; and it is only hi order to become acquainted with these more readily, that the naturalist arranges or classifies them, placing those together which have most in common, and separating those which are widely difl'erent. Classification (one of the most prominent divisions of this work) is not the object of Natural History, but a means of gaining that object, and it is very easy to enter upon many interesting inquiries without the slightest knowledge of it. The structure and actions of man, for example, may be examined in the greatest detail without knowing any thing of his place in the general scale of being (although such knowledge will often shorten the student's labor) ; and other kinds of animals may be observed in the same manner. ^

A second very prominent division of this work, constituting the Natural History of each individual animal under consideration, has been less brought under the notice of those who pursue this study only for the improvement and recreation of their minds, than it perhaps deserves. No one will dispute the importance of the animal world in the economy of nature, and therefore this particular department of the work will lead those who may be disposed to enter upon the study to a pursuit which cannot fail to prove an important source of interest, delight, and improvement. It is adapted as much as possible to such as have no previous information on the subject, beyond that which all persons of ordinary capacity may gain by themselves, and at the same time it omits no topic of high but less general interest, which those who feel interested in the subject may wish fully and elaborately treated.

A third and perhaps the most important division of this work is offered to supply a deficiency in this department of medical literature, upon a plan quite new and unprecedented. The student who wishes to obtain correct systematic descrip-

Ylii PREFACE.

tions of the various substances obtained from the animal world employed in medicine, must either consult a long series of expensive books, or be content with the short notices contained in the usual treatises on the Materia Medica, and hence the important subject has been very generally neglected. The popular and expensive works now referred to undoubtedly contain much that is interesting and important on these topics ; they are not, however, adapted to the general reader. They wholly confine the attention of the student to an account merely of medicinal articles, and of their composition and uses, rather than dwell particularly and at length on the analysis and history of their sources. To supply this want has been the aim of the author in the present publication, which is confined- particularly to the Materia Medica Animalia; and the very favorable reception given by the public to his Materia Medica Bolanica, published on the same plan, encouraged him in the undertaking.

The introduction contains a brief and general view of animal life, and a sketch of the structure and classification of the whole animal world. Occasion has been taken, in the delineation of this preliminary part of the work, to arrange under its respective order, class, and division every Beast, Bird, Fish, and Insect treated of in the work, that furnishes a substance yielding a medicinal agent. That something of this kind was necessary cannot be doubted, and the light thrown upon these subjects by this means seems preferable to incorporating the requisite additions for this purpose with each subject in the body of the work.

The Glossary, added to the other contents of the volume, contains numerous terms used in zoological works, and other words of frequent occurrence in, if not peculiar to, the study of Natural History. The careful definition of these terms will be esteemed as real desiderata.

The extreme difficulty and great expense of executing the colored plates at once in an accurate and elegant style, can only be appreciated by those who have actually attempted something of the same kind. It is gratifying, however, to find that the general execution of the plates has met with the public approbation, — a fact of which the favorable notices of the press and the large subscription list afford ample evidence, and, it is hoped, a guaranty for what may appear in future.

Contents

Frontispiece ........

Title and Portrait ........

Preface

Table of Contents

Introduction ........

Family Flora or Materia Medica Botanica. Advertisement

Isis NOBiLis, the Coral xviii