Collections for an essay towards a materia medica of the United-States. Part second / By Benjamin Smith Barton.

  • Barton, Benjamin Smith, 1766-1815.
Date:
1804
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Collections for an essay towards a materia medica of the United-States. Part second / By Benjamin Smith Barton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    is, in part, well founded. It was remarked by a write ter*, who was more distinguished for the vivacity of his wit than for the solidity of his judgement, that the intermittent fever prevailed in Europe, but that the Pe¬ ruvian bark was found in South-America, This ob¬ servation was intended as an exception to the general rule which I have mentioned. Perhaps, it was in¬ tended to arraign the benevolent order of Providence. But the observation can have no weight with physici¬ ans who know, that the intermittent fever is the dis¬ ease of almost every climate, and that the Peruvian bark is not the only remedy that is capable of subduing this disease. tc Without any regard, however, to the rule that, in general, the remedies for diseases exist in the na¬ tive countries of such diseases, it may safely be conjec¬ tured, judging from the discoveries which have al¬ ready been made, in the term of three hundred years, that there are no countries of the world from which there is reason to expect greater or more valuable ac¬ cessions to the Materia Medica, than the countries of America. The different species of Cinchona, or Peru¬ vian bark, the Quassia, the Simarouba, the Guaiacum, the different kinds of Jallap and of Ipecacuanha, the Polygala Senega, the two species of Spigelia, not to mention many other valuable medicines, are all natives of America; and most of them have not, hitherto, been found in any other portion of the world. “ It has often been said, that the Materia Medica: is already crowded with a great number of inert, use- * Monsieur De Voltaire.