Not so well acquainted
with the oeconomy of nature, which teaches us that plants were chiefly
destined for the food of various animals, they sought in every herb some
latent healing virtue, and frequently endeavoured to make up the want of
efficacy in one by the combination of numbers: hence the extreme length
of their farraginous prescriptions. More enlightened ideas of the
operations of medicine have taught the moderns greater simplicity and
conciseness in practice. Perhaps there is a danger that this simplicity
may be carried to far, and become finally detrimental to the practice."
The above is quoted from the Preface to a Catalogue of Medicinal Plants
published by my predecessor in 1783: and it may be observed, that the
medical student has, at the present season, a still less number of
plants to store up in memory, owing, probably, to the great advances
that chemistry has made in the mean time, through which mineral articles
in many instances have superseded those of the vegetable kingdom. But,
nevertheless, as Dr. Woodville has justly observed, "it would be
difficult to show that this preference is supported by any conclusive
reasoning drawn from a comparative superiority of the former;" or that
the more general use of them has led to greater success in the practice
of the healing art. It is however evident, that we have much to regret
the almost total neglect of the study of medical botany by the younger
branches of the professors of physic, when we are credibly informed that
Cow-parsley has been administered for Hemlock, and Foxglove has been
substituted for Coltsfoot [Footnote: See the account of a dreadful
accident of this nature, in Gent.
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