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Show Vil V1 justly doomed to moulderon the shelf, Pharmacy in particular was a jumble of the most heterogeneous compounds. Your father’s, and then your own Pharmacopocia* formed after his model, appeared, and all became clearness and precision, Hersats especially, as parts of the Pharmacopeia , were at this period a disgrace to medic ine, and highly dangerous to the community, A desire to become acquainted with the virtues of Piants seems to have been coeval with the first dawnof knowledge ; but the figures contained in the books treating of these subjects are so inac- curate, and the descriptions so vague , credulous, and, in.everysense, so gross and vulga r, that mis- takes ‘were unavoidable, and false prope rties were bestowed on the most commonand trivial Plants. The Medical Botany of the ingenious and able Woopvitte cleared much rubbish from this Augxanstable, but the expensive mode of its publication deterred many practitioners, and families in general, from the purchase ; there was, therefore, wanted for general and ordina ry use a companion to your useful and perfect Pha rmacopeia. Nothing more was required than simply to treadin yourfootsteps, adding Figures by such an Artist as Bewicx, and correct Descriptions, with the addition of some general Prescriptions, co mbining at the same time * The Eninsurcu New Dis rensatory, by Dr. Anprew Doncay . from all authors whatever related to the subject: This could not be accomplished in a Pharmacopoia; the present Work, therefore, is presented to the world as a more complete and perfect Herpat than has hitherto appeared ; and as intendedto unite the various advantages that have been derived to science from your “ Edinburgh New Dispensatory.” 1 take this opportunity, therefore, to acknowledge the source of. much of my information, which I would not, indeed, disfigure by a change of words, but have generally transcribed from your work, so that considerable part of the merit which may be found in this Hergax must in justice be ascribed ‘to your industry and intelligence; and I hope, and trust, that the very superior Engravings of Bewicx will render it in every respect a useful introduction to Pharmaceutical Science. I have necessarily had frequent occasion to describe the culinary properties of many vegetables, and on this subject my obligations have been consi- derable to the best book on this art, namely, that by Duncan Macdonald. It is presumed that the reader will here find, for the first time, many valuable properties of Plants ascertained, which are either wholly new, or have hitherto been locked up in large, expensive, and inaccessible works of British growth, or in scarce books on Botany published in foreign countr ies, Whatever may be the merits or defect s of this i |