The American new dispensatory : containing general principles of pharmaceutic chemistry ; pharmaceutic operations ; chemical analysis of the articles of materia medica ; materia medica, including several new and valuable articles, the production of the United States ; preparations and compositions ; with an appendix, containing medical prescriptions ; the nature and medical uses of the gases ; medical electricity ; galvanism ; an abridgment of Dr. Currie's reports on the use of water ; the cultivation of the poppy plant, and the method of preparing opium ; and several useful tables ; the whole compiled from the most approved authors, both European and American / by James Thacher.
- James Thacher
- Date:
- 1810
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The American new dispensatory : containing general principles of pharmaceutic chemistry ; pharmaceutic operations ; chemical analysis of the articles of materia medica ; materia medica, including several new and valuable articles, the production of the United States ; preparations and compositions ; with an appendix, containing medical prescriptions ; the nature and medical uses of the gases ; medical electricity ; galvanism ; an abridgment of Dr. Currie's reports on the use of water ; the cultivation of the poppy plant, and the method of preparing opium ; and several useful tables ; the whole compiled from the most approved authors, both European and American / by James Thacher. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)
![extremely limited in their application] and arc liable to main causes of obscurity and error. The chemical history of the articles of the materi medica, embraces several important subjects of inquiry. Their analysis, especially that of those belonging to the vege- table kingdom, has been supposed capable of leading to a know- ledge of their virtues; and the opinion does not a priori appear improbable, since the medicinal powers of any compound body, in common with its other internal properties, must arise from its peculiar composition. Without any reference, however, to the very imperfect analyses of the older chemists, it may be re- marked, that even from the researches of modern chemistry- little information of this kind can be acquired. It may be dis- covered, indeed, in what proximate principle of any vegetable substance its virtues reside ; but this affords no previous indica- tion of these virtues. Nor can the analysis of these principles explain the source of the powers which are attached to them in particular substances; the peculiarities of composition from which these may originate, being by far too subtile to be(detect- ed by chemical means. Chemistry, however, is in other respects more directly use- ful in its application to the materia medica. It enables us, by the use of proper solvents, or by the due application of heat, to separate those proximate principles of vegetables in which their virtues reside, from other inert or noxious matter with which they may be mixed; it ascertains how far these processes are useful, points out those changes in composition by which the virtues of the substances acted on are frequently altered, and the means by which such injuries may be lessened or prevent- ed. Similar advantages are obtained from its application to the few products of the animal kingdom that are used in medicine. Those which are derived from the mineral kingdom, can be employed with advantage and discrimination only when their composition is known; and the analyses of these substances have exploded many errors respecting them, have enabled us to distinguish them from each other, have pointed out the iden- tity of others, and have rectified the processes by which they are prepared. By new combinations, chemistry furnishes us with many remedies equally active and important with those afforded by nature ; and by pointing out the mutual chemical action of dif- ferent substances, it guards against the errors which might arise from improper mixtures.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21158484_0022.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
