Biographical memoir of Franklin Bache, M.D : prepared at the request of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia : read before the college, May 3d and June 7th, 1865 / by George B. Wood.

  • Wood, George B. (George Bacon), 1797-1879.
Date:
1865
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Biographical memoir of Franklin Bache, M.D : prepared at the request of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia : read before the college, May 3d and June 7th, 1865 / by George B. Wood. 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.)

    49/74
    of pages, which could not be received as an accurate measure of value, the proceeds should be equally divided, he positively declined; and this, too, at a time when a few hundred dollars annually were a matter of great importance to him. The work was successful greatly beyond our expecta- tions; a second edition being called for some time before the expiration of the year; and from that time to the decease of Dr. Bache, a period of about thirty years, there was no slackening in the public demand. That it contributed to fulfill the original purpose of the authors, the diffusion, namely, of a knowledge of the Pharma- copoeia, and its ultimate adoption as the national stand- ard, can scarcely be doubted. For obvious reasons I am precluded from comment on the character, the merits or demerits of the work; but a few facts may be men- tioned, in addition to what has been already said; and are indeed called for in justice to him with whose biogra- phy we are engaged. One of them is that the work is not the same as it was when first written, but really a new one, in which certain primary features of the origi- nal have been preserved, but the substance has been changed as if by a sort of interstitial growth, indicating a constant watchfulness, at each successive edition, so to modify every article, as to bring it into accordance with the progress of knowledge or the change of opinion. Besides, very many additions have been made; and the quantity of matter contained in the book has been nearly if not quite doubled. Another fact is that, in