The new British domestic herbal; or, a correct description of British medicinal plants: intended for the use of families, and for every purpose of domestic medicine ... / by John Augustine Waller.

  • Waller, John Augustine
Date:
1822
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The new British domestic herbal; or, a correct description of British medicinal plants: intended for the use of families, and for every purpose of domestic medicine ... / by John Augustine Waller. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Whatever may be the advantage of these Mineral and Vegetable Poi¬ sons in skilful and experienced hands, there can be no doubt that the in¬ discriminate employment of such deleterious articles must be attended with consequences the most serious to the health of the community, amongst which the fashion of prescribing them shall have been establish¬ ed. The term fashion, in this sense, may sound strange in the ears of those who are not of the medical profession; but to the observer of metlical practice, who has had the opportunity of noting the practice of half a century, or even a much less period, it will be a familiar fact, that female dress has scarcely gone through a greater variety of form in the same period. The author of the present work, feeling deejd}- im¬ pressed with the persuasion, that the same salutary eflects may be pro¬ duced in the treatment of diseases by much less hazardous means, has been induced to offer to the notice of the Public at large, as well as to the Profession, the result of the experience of those great men who nobly upheld the reputation of the profession in their respective pe¬ riods, and transmitted in their writings, from generation to generation, the result of their individual practice in every disease that came un¬ der their notice, before the rage for poisonous minerals and vege¬ tables had established itself. The authorities followed in this work are the most venerable in the annals of Medicine ; men who were distinguished more by their practice than their theory; such as Sydenham, Willis, Etmuller, Geoflroy, Schroederus, &C. &:c., acute observers of Nature, whose testimony can be relied on concerning any fact which has come w ithin their ow n knowledge, and who gave up a great part of their time to the observance of the operations of the numerous vegetable remedies which thev em¬ ployed. To this may be added, that they were men of profound erudi- tioh, possessing a greater fund of learning than can be comnionly met w ith in the present day, and consequently were well qualified to observe r and to report on the various phenomena which came under their notice. These remarks are premised merely with a view'to the solution of the followdng question. If the plants described in this work reallv pos¬ sess the properties assigned to them, how' does it happen that the great¬ est part of them are exploded b}’ the practitioners of the present day ? T answ er, first; the present race of physicians do not even pretend that their rejection of them is the result of a conviction, after a fair trial, that they are inert and useless. Secondly, that so far from this being the case, the greatest part of Modern practitioners arc tottillv ignorant
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