Southall's Organic Materia Medica - John Barclay

Excerpt from Southall's Organic Materia Medica: A Handbook Treating of Some of the More Important of the Animal and Vegetable Drugs Made Use of in Medicine, Including the Whole of Those Contained in the British Pharmacop ia
Toronto, Preface To Fifth And Enlarged Edition. The First Edition of Southall sMateria Medica was prepared in 1874 by the late William Southall, F.L.S., and thirteen years later, in 1887, a fourth and enlarged edition was published. This latter has for some time been out of print, and the occasion of the preparation of a new edition was regarded as a favourable one for making some very considerable amplifications and alterations.
The once almost universal system of classification, according to Botanical origin, has been abandoned, that of placing together drugs of analagous form and physical character having been adopted in its stead. This method of classification may now be said to have received official sanction in this country, inasmuch as it is made use of in the Calendar of the Pharmaceutical Society. In order, however, to facilitate the comparison of drugs of allied Botanical origin, a list of the more important medicine-yielding plants classified under Natural Orders is given at the commencement of the book.
The number of drugs treated has been considerably extended, notably in the direction of those of Transatlantic origin, this course having seemed advisable on account of the increasing favour with which those remedies have been received in this country during the last few years.
The chemical notes have been somewhat amplified, and an attempt has been made to bring them up to date; while the use of small type in the form of notes dealing with matters of minor importance, such as substitutions, adulterations, allied drugs, etc., has been adopted, it being intended that the student may thus, to some extent, be guided as to the relative value of the different items of information supplied.
The introduction of a few words concerning the uses to which each drug is applied is a feature new to this edition; but there is here no intention of teaching the student either Pharmacology or Therapeutics, the aim being merely to give him just such information as a person engaged in the handling of drugs might with advantage possess.
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