INTRODUCTION

THE MEDICAL CRITIC

Will, I have no doubt, at once pronounce that this is avery heterogeneous production.—a farrago of drugs, sim-ples, and nostrums, ranged on the same page with the legi-timate Materia Medica and preparations authorised by theRoyal Colleges. But before he prepares to condemn thebook on this ground, I request him to look into the shopof any apothecary, chemist, or druggist of his acquaint-ance, and see whether the shelves and the drawers theredo not present as multifarious and incongruous an aspectas my pages, which are meant to exhibit an account ofevery article kept in the shops. If the critic, then, findthis objection untenable, he will probably fix upon theerrors and mistakes into which I have fallen; and no-thing will gratify me more than to have these pointedout, that I may take the earliest opportunity of correctingthem. In a work of this kind, indeed, accuracy is thegreatest excellence, and yet we all know that where somany recipes occur with numerous marks of quantities,&c, it is nearly impossible to avoid all mistakes. I hope,however, that few errors of importance have eluded thecare that has been bestowed on the work.

THE SURGEON AND APOTHECARY

Will find this work to be useful in directing him notonly to the qualities of drugs, and their doses, but alsoas to the cautions given respecting incompatible sub-stances with which we too frequently find prescriptions