The American new dispensatory. Containing general principles of pharmaceutick chemistry, chemical analysis of the articles of materia medica, pharmaceutick operations ... / [James Thacher].

  • Thacher, James, 1754-1844.
Date:
1821
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The American new dispensatory. Containing general principles of pharmaceutick chemistry, chemical analysis of the articles of materia medica, pharmaceutick operations ... / [James Thacher]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    RECOMMENDATIONS. REPORT OF A COMMITTEE OF THE MASSACHUSETTS MEDICAL SOCIETY. J yet Committee appointed by the Massachusetts Medical Society, to examine a manuscript submitted to their inspection by doctor James Thacher, under the title of the American New Dispensatory, have per- formed that service as minutely as their various avocations would admit ; and are of opinien, that a work of this kind is much wanted at the present period, on account, of the improvements and important discoveries, which have been made in chemical science within a few years, by which the exist- ing publications have been in some measure superseded. Dr. Thacher appears to have made his compilation from the most ap- proved modern publications, and to have adapted it to the purpose of &¢ a standard work, exhibiting, in a familiar language, and a concentrated form, the principles of modern pharmacy, chemistry, and materia medica.’ Many of the ancient pharmaceutical articles and preparations, which experience has proved to possess little or no value, have been left out of the work, by which means it is compressed into a sinaller compass, and rendered less expensive than most European publications of the same kind. - A number of indigenous substances are introduced into the materia medi- ca, which have been hitherto unknown, or which, though their properties are in some instances highly active, have never been brought into general use. As it appears to have been a principal object of Dr, Thacher to adapt the work to American practice; and as he has adopted for the basis of his work the Pharmacopeia of Massachusetts, lately published by the Me- dical Society, and recommended for general use, . they are of opinion that it will co-operate with the views of the Society in that publication, espe- cially as ‘tits nomenclature and order of arrangement seem to be strictly observed” in the manuscript. They therefore conclude, thatit will be for the interest of medical science in this country, to encourage the work, and that it may be the means of exciting a more general attention to the medicinal virtues of American pro- ductions, many of which might be introduced into the materia medica, and advantageously, as well as economically, supply the place of foreign articles. JOHN WARREN. AARON DEXTER. Boston, October 14, 1809. JOSIAH BARTLETT. RECOMMENDATIONS DIRECTED TO THE PUBLISHER. By SAMUEL L. MITCHELL, M.D. F.R.S.E.’ Professor of Natural History in the University of New York. . I formerly expressed a favourable opinion of the American New Dispen- satory, by James Thacher, M.D. I retain the same sentiments still, He continues to impreve the work from edition to edition.