A HISTORY OF
THE PRINCIPAL DRUGS
OF VEGETABLE ORIGIN, MET WITH IN
GREAT BRITAIN AND BRITISH INDIA.
BY
FRIEDRICH A. FLÜCKIGER, PHIL. DR.
PROFESSOR IN THE UNIVERSITY OF STRASSBURG,
AND
DANIEL HANBURY, F.R.S.,
FELLOW OF THE LINNEAN AND CHEMICAL SOCIETIES
OF LONDON.
SECOND EDITION.
London:
MACMILLAN AND CO.
1879.
[The Right of Translation and Reproduction is reserved.]
Pharmacographia, the word which givesthe title to this book, indicates the nature of the work to which ithas been prefixed. The term means simply a writing about drugs;and it has been selected not without due consideration, as in itselfdistinctive, easily quoted, and intelligible in many languages.
Pharmacographia, in its widest sense, embodies and expresses the jointintention of the authors. It was their desire, not only to writeupon the general subject, and to utilize the thoughts of others; butthat the book which they decided to produce together should containobservations that no one else had written down. It is in fact arecord of personal researches on the principal drugs derived from thevegetable kingdom, together with such results of an important characteras have been obtained by the numerous workers on Materia Medica inEurope, India, and America.
Unlike most of their predecessors in Great Britain during this century,the authors have not included in their programme either Pharmacy orTherapeutics; nor have they attempted to give their work that diversityof scope which would render it independent of collateral publicationson Botany and Chemistry.
While thus restricting the field of their inquiry, the authors haveendeavoured to discuss with fuller detail many points of interest whichare embraced in the special studies of the pharmacist; and at thesame time have occasionally indicated the direction in which furtherinvestigations are desirable. A few remarks on the heads under which eachparticular article is treated, will explain more precisely their design.
The drugs included in the present work are chiefly those which are[Pg vi]commonly kept in store by pharmacists, or are known in the drug andspice market of London. The work likewise contains a small number whichbelong to the Pharmacopœia of India: the appearance of thisvolume seemed to present a favourable opportunity for giving some morecopious notice of the latter than has hitherto been attempted.
Supplementary to these two groups must be placed a few substances whichpossess little more than historical interest, and have been introducedrather in obedience to custom, and for the sake of completeness, thanon account of their intrinsic value.
Each drug is headed by the Latin name, followed by such few synonyms asmay suffice for perfect identification, together in most cases with theEnglish, French, and German designation.
In the next section, the Botanical Origin of the substance isdiscussed, and the area of its growth, or locality of its production isstated. Except in a few instances, no attempt has been made to furnishbotanical descriptions of the plants to which reference is made. Suchinformation may readily be obtained from original and special sources,of which we have quoted some of the most important.
Under the head of History, the authors have endeavoured totrace the int