It will be found on examination that, of these articles, scarcely more than 20 are admitted into any British pharmacopoeia.

So far we have been engaged with the introduction: but we now arrive at the body of the work, the first book of which consists of a sketch of the natural history of simple medicinal substances, drawn from the three kingdoms of nature. In entering on this list, we were not a little startled to observe the first article of the materia medica to be MAN;' and the following is the account which M. VIREY gives of the use of this substance in medicine:

MAN, bomo sapiens. L. (Nosce teipsum.) The medicinal substances that were formerly drawn from this source, as the shavings of the skull for epilepsy, the parings of the nails as an emetic, the urine for jaundice, the excrements in cataplasms, the mummy as a vulne rary, the fat as an antarthritic, &c. are no more employed. We sometimes recommend woman's milk, which is very saccharine, as a powerful analeptic. The urine has also been employed externally.'

The virtues of many other animals introduced into the materia medica are, as our readers may suppose, equally important. We will select a few articles, taken promiscuously from the vegetable kingdom, which we may expect to harmonize more nearly with our views on the subject:

Medicinal lichens; the pulmonary of the oak, lichen pulmonarius, Linn. foliated, grey expansion, without odour, taste slightly bitter, appears to be bechic, detersive, and aperient. Iceland lichen, eladonia islandica of Achard, and the lichen velleus, Linn. foliated, ashcoloured, with ciliated borders, taste slightly bitter; used as food in Iceland; are taken in infusion against catarrhe; are mucilaginous, antihectic, and sometimes purgative; produced in the forests of great mountains. Willemet (Hist. des lichens utiles) mentions the lichen aphtorum, L. as drastic, and vermifuge; the lichen plicatus, L. (stereocaulon of Achard) as astringent; its anti-epileptic virtues are imaginary; its decoction is detersive externally, as well as that of many others; it has an agreeable odour, which is employed in perfumery, as well as the lichen rangiferinus, L. The lichen pyxidatus, L. is very bectic, and, it is said, lithontriptic. The lichen coccifer, L. has the same virtues; it is still employed in intermittent fevers. The lichen prunastri, L. is fragrant, and also astringent and bechic. The lichen caninus has been improperly vaunted for hydrophobia. The lichen pustulatus, L. may supply the place of pimento, &c.'

Our readers will no doubt feel amazed at these numerous virtues of lichens, of which they could before have had no conception. The account of the Alie, corresponds more with English ideas:

Aloe perfoliata, L. Aloe Soccoterina, Lamarck. This is an extract by expression; the parts the least pure give the hepatic aloe, which is better than the caballine, the residue of the dregs. The

first

first is brown, semi-transparent, and of a nauseous odour; of acrid, bitter taste; purgative, drastic, and very heating. We may extract a nutritive fecula from this plant, which is done by the Cochinchinese. It grows at Soccotora, an island near the Gulph of Arabia. The Barbadoes aloe resembles in its qualities the preceding species, and is extracted from the aloë vulgaris, Lamarck, and is a native of America.

The following account of the fox-glove would not be regarded in this country as either scientific or correct; Digitalis purpurea, L. and Lutea, L., especially the first, is much commended in epilepsy; it is an active emetic, useful externally as a vulnerary, antiscrofulous, and contains a narcotic principle.' After what we have already seen, we are not surprized to find the potatoe introduced as an article of the materia medica. Solanum tuberosum, L. has many varieties; it was brought into England by Sir Walter Raleigh from Peru, towards the end of the 16th century. The roots afford much starch, and a quarter of their weight of mucilage. According to Lobb, they are diuretic. (See Parmentier.)

These specimens will be sufficient to shew the nature of this part of the work, and to prove that it contains some useful information, but mixed with much that is trifling; that the most esteemed articles of the materia medica are placed nearly on the same footing with those of the most dubious virtues; and that the most valuable qualities are ascribed to such as are perfectly inert. This injudicious and indiscriminate account of the materia medica, we conceive, depends not altogether on an imperfect knowlege of the subject, although it must in part be attributed to this cause, but in some measure at least on the custom which prevails very generally in the writings of Frenchmen, of saying every thing on every topic, and, instead of proceeding on the plan of selection, of making it their main object to leave nothing unsaid. Without some apology of this kind, we must indeed consider M. VIREY as very ignorant and very credulous.

The next division of the treatise is occupied with chemical details, and possesses considerable merit. We are furnished with a good account of the general principles of the science, of the different chemical elements, of the constituents of animal and vegetable substances, and of the various operations of chemistry. The laboratory and its appendages are very minutely described. The pharmacopoeia in all its branches then comes into view, and forms the most considerable part of the publication. We find the same general impression made on our minds by this portion as by the materia medica: it contains an immense quantity of matter, but it exhibits no discrimination; and like the former it affords us the means of contrasting the French

and

and English practice, a comparison which is very decisive in favor of our countrymen. The simplicity of our prescriptions is displayed as much in the composition as in the choice of the articles; and while we are seldom in the habit of introducing any substance into a formula which is not intended to produce some decided effect, the French seem still to proceed on the old plan of using a mass of ingredients, and, without inquiring into the use of the individual parts, to rest satisfied if they imagine that advantage is derived from the whole. Hence in France the pharmaceutical preparations are still retained which were employed in England about two centuries ago. We meet with the Theriaque d'Andromaque, composed of 65 ingredients; the Mithridate de Damocrates, composed of 45; the Orvietan,' of 53; besides the celestial theriac, the sublime orvietan, the opiate of Solomon, the electuaire hiera diacolocynthi das' of Pachius, the blessed laxative electuary of Nicholas of Salernum, and many others which contain only about 20 or 30 articles. To such preparations as these, in consequence of the number of ingredients which they include, the inventors ascribed virtues of all kinds; whereas, from the same reason, we are disposed to deny them any virtues. That such composi tions are suffered to retain a place, in the latest pharmaceutical works of such a country as France, is a melancholy proof of the slow progress of knowlege, even on those subjects in which the human mind has full scope for free inquiry, and has no fetters imposed on its progress except its own prejudices.

Another circumstance, which impresses us with no very favorable opinion of French medicine, is the number of specifics which are profusely scattered among the pharmaceutical preparations; we find pills, powders, and boluses, to cure every individual disease; and ointments for each individual kind of eruption. That there are substances which possess the power of effecting a particular purpose, by an operation which is not analogous to any other with which we are acquainted, must be admitted by every person who believes in the power of mercury and sulphur: but we always observe that, as knowlege advances,. the number, of such substances diminishes, both in consequence, of our conviction that many supposed virtues are without ex-, istence, and because we become enabled, by understanding their operation better, to refer it to some general principle. We shall not deem it necessary to enter on any long or minute critique on the pharmacopoeia: it would indeed be a vast undertaking; and the profit of it would very ill recompence the labor necessarily bestowed on it. In order, however, to give our readers some idea of its nature, and to enable them to. compare it with the English pharmacopoeia, we shall take one

section

section, enumerate the articles which it contains, and give a general account of their ingredients. We select the Pilk as our specimen; and we can safely state that it is one of the most moderate in the whole collection, with respect both to the number and the composition of its articles. The first is intitled Pilules de mercure gommeux,' consisting of mercury rubbed down with gum, honey, and liquorice. Pilules mer curielles purgatives. These contain, with the mercury, jalap, senna, aloes, scammony, and four other articles.— Pilules mercurielles, du codex de Paris, consisting of mercury, sugar, scammony, jalap, and rhubarb. Pilules mercurielles, dites de Béloste, consisting of mercury, sugar, scammony, and jalap, rubbed with white wine. Another form of mercurial pills is then given, composed of metallic mercury, corrosive sublimate, gum, scammony, and jalap, rubbed with the syrup of quinces. Pilules Napolitaines, de Renaudot,' contain mercury, aloës, rhubarb, scammony, agaric, mace, canella, sassafras, and honey. Pilules pour le gravier des reines,' a compound of the extracts of buckbean, annise, and couch-grass, with soap, ironfilings, aloës, jalap, scammony, squills, and quince syrup; a truly heterogeneous mass! Pilules purgatives, pour une prise consist of 12 grains of calomel, 10 of scammony, and 18 of jalap, mixed up with the syrup of peach-flowers. Pilules de panacée mercurielles, et dragées vermifuges,' consist of 'muriate doux lavé, dit panacée mercurielle, porphyrisée,' mixed with crumbs of bread and water. Keyser's pills are formed of the acetate of mercury, rubbed with manna or sugar, starch, and mucilage. Expectorant pills, consisting of the butter of cocoa, Florentine iris, and kermes mineral. Pilules pour la gale, ou éthiopiques,' consisting of the black sulphurets of mercury and antimony, with guaiacum and sarsaparilla. Antimonial bolus, consisting of sulphuret of antimony, canella, and conserve of roses. • Pilules benites, de Fuller,' composed of aloes, senna, assa-foetida, galbanum, myrrh, sulphate of iron, saffron, mace, oil of amber, and syrup of mugwort. Pilules emmenagogues,' consisting of the extracts of elicampane, savin, and aloes, with iron filings, oil of savin, and syrup of horehound. Under the title of remedies against tania, we have a bolus of calomel to be taken with a tisanne of fern root and Corsican moss; and afterward another bolus is to be taken, of calomel, scammony, and fern root, or of tin powder.-Next follow chalybeate pills, composed of iron filings, canella, aloes, and syrup of mugwort; the astringent pills of Lemery reformed, consisting of 12 ingredients, and which will require several more reformations be--fore they are accommodated to English practice; then the emetic pills of Boerhaave, and the tartarized pills of Schröder, which

We

derive their name from the tartarized tincture of iron. have also a formula for simple soap-pills, and then we arrive at the pills of Morthon; the principal ingredient in which is the powder of wood-lice. Next come the tonic pills of Bacher, composed of black hellebore, myrrh, and carduus benedictus; then the pilules antè cibum, ou gourmandes, ou grains de vie, de Mesue, composed of aloes, mastic, red roses, and wormwood syrup; and the soap-pills of Stephens. The balsamic pills of Stahl and the pilules angéliques' consist, the former of 11, and the latter of vegetable ingredients; the emollient aloetic pills, and Rufus's pills, are more simple in their composition: but their moderation is balanced by the pilules fétides majeures, de Mesué, réformees,' which, notwithstanding their reform, still retain a jumble of 19 substances. A formula is given for pills of dog's tongue by the same Mesué, who seems to have been a grand compositor, containing 8 articles; and Galen's storax pills, containing 7. The next in order are Starkey's pills, Mynsicht's alum pills, turpentine pills, stomachic pills, pilules catholiques,' splenetic pills, pilules amères fondantes', De Haen's purgative pills, De Haen's soap pills, and Rotrou's purgative pills; all more moderate in their composition. Beccher's pills, containing 14 ingredients; hysteric pills, containing 9; pilules cochées mineures ;' pilules cochées majeures, de Rhasis; Helvetius's hydragogue pills; Bontius's hydragogue pills; and Rudius's pills, finish this long catalogue. In order to prove that we did not select the pills as being remarkable for their number, we may state that the pharmacopoeia contains 17 troches, 32 confections and electuaries, 17 tisannes, and 50 powders. In short, the pharmacopoeia is in every respect the counterpart of the materia medica; and all the remarks that we made on the latter will apply to the former.

We have little more to add respecting this work, but that we have been amused with the perusal of it; and we think that any person, who wishes to acquire an idea of the state of medical science in France, would receive from it information which might answer his purpose: but, with respect to the English practical apothecary, it can be of little use, except to shew him how much preferable his situation is, compared with that of the members of the same profession on the continent.

ART.