An introduction to the study of materia medica : being a short account of the more important crude drugs of vegetable and animal origin : designed for students of pharmacy and medicine / by Henry G. Greenish.

Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An introduction to the study of materia medica : being a short account of the more important crude drugs of vegetable and animal origin : designed for students of pharmacy and medicine / by Henry G. Greenish. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    drugs are termed ' crude drugs.' Thus the poppy capsule is a crude drug, and opium, which consists siiiiplj^ of the dried latex of the unripe capsule, is also classed as a crude drug ; but the alkaloid morphine, which is the chief constituent of opium, and can be extracted from it only by a comparatively elaborate process, is uot regarded as. such: Similarly the resins, oleo- resins, gum-resins, various dried juices, &c. are included amongst the crude drugs. The term is also extended to certain vege- table extracts imported from distant countries in which alone they are prepared, even if they have been partially purified, as, for instance, cutch and gambler, although similSr extracts, prepared in this country, would no longer be considered as crude drugs. Disregarding for the moment the few drugs derived from the animal kingdom, it is evident that the student will have to deal with organised and unorganised drugs. The former will consist of plants, or of organs that form parts of plants ; the latter of products of plants. To enable him to study the former intelligently it is obvious that he must be acquainted with the morphology and anatomy of the organs they represent; for the examination of unorganised drugs some knowledge of inorganic and organic chemistry is, in addition, equally requisite. The study of these two sciences should therefore precede that of Materia Medica, and in the following pages that is assumed to have been the course adopted. The drugs have been divided first into those that are organ- ised and those that are unorganised. The organised drugs have been subdivided into sections according to the organs they represent, and the members of each of the sections thus formed have been grouped in their natural orders. This arrangement, although in some respects convenient, is by no means an ideal one. I should have pre- ferred a subdivision based upon the anatomical characters of the members, but such a classification would have premised a familiarity on the part of the student with the use of the micro- scope that I did not feel justified in assuming.