viii The PREFACE.

are voluminous. But fuch we hope hereby to banlßj from theDesks of Apothecaries, and others whofe Profeffion it is to beacquainted herewith ; that they who are regularly educated inPharmacy, may not any longer have the Difgrace of borrowingAffiances from Empirics. If any Jhould charge us with lay-ing open hereby the Myficries of their Profeffion too much ; theymay reflect, that nothing of this nature has yet been fuffer'dto remain in a Language unknown to common People ; andlikewife be affurcd, that the true ana only Secret in Phyfic, is,How to give a Medicine, and not how to make it : andthat it will always remain fo, to thofe who are acquainted withmany neceffary Prscognita in the Works of Nature.

Our Materials are collected from all the Authors of the befiNote in either of the Pharmacies, of every Country and Lan-guage ; and tho many of them have been tranflated, and are tobe met with in Engliih, yet we have not trufted to any fuchLeaders. Many of the Exte?nporaneous Prefcriptions have beentaken from Dr. Fuller, as he took them from others before ;but with the liberty of varying, where any thing is an Ingre-dient which is unfit for the Form it is prefcribed in, or notfuit able to the main Intention of the whole. In the former ofthefe Cafes that Author very often errs, particularly in orderingEffential Oils in Juleps, Draughts, and fuch like liquid Forms :for allowing them to fuit the Intention of Cure, yet they agree notwith fuch a Form, and render it both unpalatable and unfightly,and may much ?nore conveniently be given in another manner.And in every refpeci we have had particular regard to the Ele-gance and Conveniencies of making, as well as to the medicinalEfficacies of every Prefcription.

Some Difficulties, it is very probable, may appear in theformer Part concerning the "Theory of Pharmacy, to fuch whohave not been previoufly converfant with Studies of the likekind ; we have therefore contraéled it into as fmall a compafsas poffMe ; tho it is highly to be wiß'd, that all who makePharmacy their Profeffion, would put a better Value upon fuchKnozvledge than heretofore they have done, and not fet out onlywith an implicit Faith in the Precepts of an Apprenticeßip : forthe Underfianding is more to be emplofd in that Profeffion, thanmany feem to have thought it ; and a good Infight into the Na-

s ture