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The Historical Introduction, comprehending the substance of the lectures delivered before the Royal College of Physicians of London, from the recently established chair of Materia Medica, has been prefixed to the work, at the desire of several of the auditors; and I confess my readiness to comply with this request, as it enabled me at once to obviate any misconception or unjust representation of those remarks which I felt it my bounden duty to offer to the College.

It will be observed that the work itself is divided into two separate and very distinct parts, the First comprehending the principles of the art of combination,—the Second, the medicinal history, and chemical habitudes of the bodies which are the subjects of such combination. These comprise every legitimate source of instruction, and to the young and industrious student, they are at once the Loom and the Raw Material. Let him therefore abandon those flimsy and ill-adapted textures, that are kept ready fabricated for the service of ignorance and indolence, and by actuating the machinery himself, weave the materials with which he is here presented into the forms and objects that may best fulfil his intentions, and meet the various exigencies of each particular occasion.