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Observations on the Drying and Preserving of Herbs, &c. for Medicinal
Purposes.
The student who has paid attention to the subject described in the
foregoing sections, will be struck with the admirable contrivance of
Divine Wisdom; that has caused such astringent substances as are
contained in the oak and Peruvian bark, to be produced from the same
soil, and in a similar way to those mucilaginous and laxative ones which
we find in the juice of the marsh-mallow, and the olive oil. It is not
intended in this small elementary work to enter into any investigation
of the primitive parts of the vegetable creation, or how such different
particles are secreted. It may therefore suffice, that, although the
science of vegetable physiology admits of many very beautiful and
instructing illustrations, yet they only go so far as to prove to us,
that the first and grand principle of vegetable life and existence, as
well as of the formation of all organic substances, consists in a system
of attraction and combination of the different particles of nature, as
they exist and are imbibed from the soil and the surrounding atmosphere.
Thus, during their existence, we observe a continual series of
aggregation of substance; but no sooner does the principle of life
become extinct, than the agents of decomposition are at work, dividing
and selecting each different substance, and carrying it back from whence
it came:--"From dust thou comest, and to dust thou shalt return.
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