Manual of materia medica & therapeutics : being an abridgment of the late Dr. Pereira's Elements of materia medica arranged in conformity with the British pharmacopoeia, and adapted to the use of medical practitioners, chemists and druggists, medical and

Front matter

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Accession No.>

ATLANTA, GA.

Preface

The great work on Materia Medica, which I have undertaken to reduce to a more convenient size and to adapt for more general use, is a mine of wealth which probably few readers have yet exhausted. The incessant labours of its late auth6r, the extent to which he pushed his inquiries, and the pains which he took to verify all the information which he collected, give to his work a peculiar value and authority. Its copiousness, however, had become embarrassing; not, indeed, to those who desired to study the subject in the comprehensive spirit of the author, but to the majority of medical practitioners, pharmaceutical chemists, and medical and pharmaceutical students, who, having only a limited portion of time at their disposal, were obliged to be content with such an amount of information as they could reasonably hope to acquire, and such as would most assist them in their daily occupations. Bearing this in mind, I have reduced the large work to about one third of its size, without, I trust, diminishing — may I venture to hope with some increase of — its general utility. This, however, could not be done without strictly adhering to the following rules : —

1. To omit all remedial agents, except those which the author termed pharmacological, such as mental, physical but imponderable, and hygienic remedies, or, to be more specific, the influence of the mind, of light, heat, electricity, food, exercise, climate, &c.

2. To omit all pharmacological remedies which are not officinal, or contained in the British Pharmacopoeia.

3. To omit all classifications of medicines except the two classifications which the author himself adopted: one founded on the chemical classification of the inorganic bodies, and on the botanical and zoological classifications of the plants and animals which yield the organic bodies ; the other founded on their physiological effects. These rules could not be carried out without excluding much valuable matter ; but it appeared to me the wisest course to act like a judicious horticulturist, who, in reducing a tree to the necessary limits, removes the too luxuriant branches, vi PREFACE.

rather than prune too closely those which bear the most valuable fruit. I have also somewhat abridged the botanical and zoological characters, and even in many cases the descriptions of the drugs themselves, important as the latter are, in order to avoid all unnecessary repetition. In doing this, I have sometimes made the author's descriptions appear more scanty and incomplete than he left them. My reason, however, is easily explained. The British Pharmacopoeia contains, in addition to the names and definition of articles of the Materia Medica, short descriptive characters and tests. These are frequently original, but have frequently also been taken from standard works on Materia Medica, and from none more largely than from the author's. When his remarks have thus been made to contribute to form the ' officinal character,' they have not been repeated in the subsequent 'description.' In selecting the most important parts of the work, I have experienced another difficulty. There are some opinions expressed — for example, on the subject of bleeding — which will hardly find acceptance at the present time, and which the author, if living, would probably himself have modified. But the present opinions and practice are still recent, and may in their turn yield to further experience. I have therefore avoided, as far as I could, interfering with the opinions expressed by the author, while I have not hesitated to alter whatever was decidedly erroneous. On the other hand, although my chief object has been to prepare a smaller work, by excluding the least important parts of the ' Elements,' much new matter has at the same time been introduced into the abridgement, in order that it may represent more correctly the present state of our knowledge. The new matter is occasionally indicated by (Ed.), but far more frequently it is introduced without notice. The Physiological Classification of Medicines I have removed from the situation where the author placed it to the end of the work, conceiving that it would be better understood after some knowledge had been acquired of the individual medicines. This part of the work is of great practical use; but it appeared to me that it might still be rendered more intelligible and more convenient for reference. I have retained nearly all of the author's classes and orders, but I have broken up the class Ferities, because the orders of medicines which influence respectively the secretion of the bowels, liver, salivary glands, bronchi, kidneys, skin, &c, are, I think, more conveniently considered in connection with those orders of medicines which influence other functions of the same organs. The classification of the author is 'in fact rather ana-

PREFACE. vii

tomical than physiological, being constructed, for example, not on the functions of digestion and respiration, but on the digestive and respiratory organs. I have placed after most of the orders another order of medicines which produce an opposite effect ; as, after emetics, which cause vomiting, antemetics, which control or prevent it ; after sialogogues, antisialics, &c. In doing this, I am only carrying out the plan of the author, who placed in juxtaposition acrids and emollients, tonics and relaxants, hypnotics and agrypnotics ; but it has compelled me to introduce some new terms. Ischurotics is hardly new, for ischuria is an old term for suppression of urine ; paregorics is also an old name occasionally employed by the author, and urinogenitals is applicable to medicines as well as to organs ; but I must apologise for the terms antemetics, antisialics, contrapituitants, antasthmatics, and anthidrotics: their meaning, however, is sufficiently obvious. I have also confined myself in this part of the work to the therapeutic use of medicines, and have omitted all other effects (perhaps poisonous) which they are capable of producing, but for which they are not employed in medicine. The antidotes also I have classified instead of the poisons, the former being the proper subjects of classification in a work on Materia Medica.

It remains for me to acknowledge the valuable assistance I have received from Professor Bentley and Mr. Warington. The former has assisted me chiefly in the description of the organic bodies, and of the plants and animals which produce them ; the latter chiefly in the inorganic bodies. The extensive knowledge of these gentlemen in their respective departments has greatly contributed to the accuracy of the work. I am also indebted to Dr. Black, for revising the article on Chloroform, and to Mr. J. E. Howard, for the information he has communicated respecting the Cinchona barks and their alkalies, and for the care and attention which he has paid to the sheets relating to these subjects.

Such as it now is, I venture to offer this Abridgement to the profession, hoping that I have not altogether failed in the object which I had in view, and only regretting that I cannot longer delay its publication, in order to make it more worthy of their acceptance.

FREDERIC JOHN FARRE, M.D. Cantab.