Volume 1

A general system of toxicology / [Matthieu Joseph Bonaventure Orfila].

  • Orfila, Matthieu Joseph Bonaventure, 1787-1853
Date:
1821
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A general system of toxicology / [Matthieu Joseph Bonaventure Orfila]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    AUTHOR'S PREFACE. OF all the branches of Medicine, the study of Toxicology is, without contradiction, that which excites the most general interest. Allied as it is by numberless relations with almost all the natural Sciences, it has occupied the attention of all Phi- losophers, who are zealous of contributing to the progress of human knowledge. The Naturalist, placed in the midst of a multitude of poisonous substances, attentively examines the varied forms which they present, their distinguishing cha- racters and their mode of developement, and ar- rives easily at a method of pointing them out. The Physiologist, inflamed with the desire of un- veiling the most secret mysteries of our organiza- tion, seeks to explain the mode of action of the most energetic poisons, the deleterious influence which they exert, and the immediate cause of the sudden death they occasion. The Medical Practitioner, aware of the fatal and instantaneous effects, pro- duced by the poisons of the three kingdoms of Nature, constantly directs his attention to the search of means capable of destroying at once their fatal action, and of re-establishing the dif-