The American dispensatory, containing the operations of pharmacy : together with the natural, chemical, pharmaceutical and medical history of the different substances employed in medicine; illustrated and explained, according to the principles of modern chemistry : the arrangement simplified, and the whole adapted to the practice of medicine and pharmacy in the United States : with several copperplates, exhibiting the new system of chemical characters, and representing the most useful apparatus / by John Redman Coxe, M.D.

  • Coxe, John Redman, 1773-1864.
Date:
1818
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The American dispensatory, containing the operations of pharmacy : together with the natural, chemical, pharmaceutical and medical history of the different substances employed in medicine; illustrated and explained, according to the principles of modern chemistry : the arrangement simplified, and the whole adapted to the practice of medicine and pharmacy in the United States : with several copperplates, exhibiting the new system of chemical characters, and representing the most useful apparatus / by John Redman Coxe, M.D. 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.)

    9/902
    TUB AMERICAN DISPENSATORY, MATERIA MEDICA. THE MATERIA MEDICA comprehends every substance, whe- ther natural or artificial, which is employed in medicine. But in most Pharmacopoeias the materia medica is confined to simples, and to those preparations which are not supposed to be prepared by the apothecary himself, but to be purchased by him as articles of com- merce from druggists and others. Much pains have been bestowed by the writers on the materia medica in attempting to form useful arrangements of these articles. Some have arranged them according to their natural affinities; others according to their active constituent parts; and others according to their real or supposed virtues. Each of these arrangements have their particular advantages. The first will probably be preferred by the natural historian, the second by the chemist, and the last by the physiologist. But no arrangement has yet been proposed which is not liable to numerous objections. Accordingly, in the Pharmacopoeias published by the Colleges of Physicians of London, Dublin, and Edinburgh, the articles of the materia medica are arranged in alpha- betical order; and the same plan is now also adopted in almost every Pharmacopoeia of much estimation lately published on the continent of Europe: it will therefore be followed in the present work. There appears to be no good reason why the different prepara- tions and compositions of the various articles of the materia medica, should not immediately follow the consideration of each article re- spectively, instead of dividing them under a great variety of distinct heads; it has therefore been deemed proper in the American Phar- macopoeia, to pursue that plan, as far as it could be conveniently ef- fected. Some preparations, as powders, pills, tinctures, &c. undoubt- edly arrange better under one general head: these are therefore still retained distinct, though they are brought into the general alpha- betical order, instead of being placed in separate chapters at the end of the materia medica. By the present plan a connected view is given of every preparation arising out of the article under considera- tion; instead of having to recur to so many different places. b