A manual of materia medica and therapeutics : including the preparations of the British pharmacopoeia, and many other approved medicines / by J. Forbes Royle and Frederick W. Headland.

  • Royle, J. Forbes (John Forbes), 1798-1858.
Date:
1865
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A manual of materia medica and therapeutics : including the preparations of the British pharmacopoeia, and many other approved medicines / by J. Forbes Royle and Frederick W. Headland. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    15/792 (page 3)
    ought to be thoroughly understood. A knowledge of medicines, there- fore, comprehends an acquaintance with their external character, their sensible properties, and their chemical nature, as well as their modes of preparation. With these should be included some knowledge of the Natural History of the Animals, Plants, or Minerals which yield them. In order to prescribe them as efficient agents for producing changes in .different organs and functions, we must be acquainted with their mode of action on the several tissues and organs, as well in a state of health as in disease,—that is, with both their Physiological action and their Therapeutical effects. With all this must be combined a knowledge of the forms in which they may most fitly be prescribed, the substances with which they may be combined, or with which they are incom- patible, the doses in which they must be given, and the cautions which peculiar circumstances may render necessary : all which is embraced in the theory and art of prescribing, together with the rules for the diet and treatment of the sick and convalescent. It is hardly necessary to state, that, for the purposes of Materia Medica and Therapeutics, so much only of the sciences connected with the above subjects requires to be known as to enable the mode of a Jon and effects of substances, when employed as remedies, to be appi-eciated. These cannot be fully discussed in this Manual, for they include, in fact, a large portion of the objects of scientific study. Thus, the affections of the mind and the passions are treated of in systems of Mental and of Moral Philosophy. The geneial powers or forces of nature, such as Heat, Light, Electricity, and Magnetism, as well as the nature and constitution of the Atmosphere and of Water, as also the subject of Climate, are discussed both by the Natural and by the Chemical philosopher. The material substances commonly called Medicines being necessarily obtained from the Mineral, the Vegetable, and Animal Kingdoms, might be expected to be treated of with the minerals, plants, or animals which yield them, in works of Natural History, that is, of Mineralogy, of Botany, and of Zoology. This, however, is seldom the case, except so far as their external characters are concerned, which require to be observed for the purposes of classification. The internal structure of the plants and animals which yield them are examined by vegetable and comparative anatomists. The composition of organic beings and of their products, as well as of mineral substances, is ascertained by the chemist. The mineral kingdom is sometimes distinguished, by the name of inorganic, from the vegetable and animal, which differ very conspicuously, in the different parts of each, however constituted, or howsoever composed, being organised. They are thus calculated to perform particular functions, which are controlled by the vital powers, and form the objects of study for Vegetable and Animal Physiologists. Though for the study of Materia Medica it is not requisite to master these various sciences, yet as we wish to acquire an accurate knowledge of the nature of medicines, the modes of classification pursued in these several sciences may be adopted as the best means of attaining that object. Indeed, this mode of studying animal, vegetable, and mineral