Pharmacologia, or, The history of medicinal substances : with a view to establish the art of prescribing and of composing extemporaneous formulæ upon fixed and scientific principles ; illustrated by formulæ, in which the intention of each element is designated by key letters / by John Ayrton Paris.

  • Paris, John Ayrton, 1785-1856.
Date:
1820
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Pharmacologia, or, The history of medicinal substances : with a view to establish the art of prescribing and of composing extemporaneous formulæ upon fixed and scientific principles ; illustrated by formulæ, in which the intention of each element is designated by key letters / by John Ayrton Paris. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    what pledge can be aiForded them, that the boasted remedies of the present day will not, like their pre- decessors, fall into disrepute, and, in their turn, serve only as humiliating memorials of the credulity and infatuation of the physicians who commended, and prescribed them ? There is surely no question con- nected with our subject, which can be more interest- ing and important, no one which requires a more cool and dispassionate inquiry, and certainly not any which can be more appropriate for a lecture, intro- ductory to the history of Materia Medica, I shall therefore proceed to examine with some attention the revolutions which have thus taken place in the opinions and belief of mankind, with regard to the efficacy and powers of.different medicinal agents; such an inquiry, by referring them to causes capable of a philosophical investigation, is calculated to remove many of the unjust prejudices which have been ex- cited, to quiet the doubts and alarms which have been so industriously propagated, and, at the same time, to obviate the recuiTence of several sources of error and disappointment. This moral view of events, without any regard to chronological minutiaj, may be denominated the Philosophy of History, and should be carefully distinguished from that technical and barren erudi- tion, which consists in a mere knowledge of names and dates. It has been very justly observed, that there is a certain maturity of the human mind, ac- quired from generation to generation, in the mass, as there is in the diiferent stages of life, in the indi- vidual man ; what is history, when thus philosophi- cally studied, but the faithful record of this progress? pointing out for our instruction the various causes A 2