Medical botany. Containing systematic and general descriptions, with plates of all the medicinal plants, comprehended in the catalogues of the materia medica, as published by the Royal Colleges of Physicians of London, Edinburgh, and Dublin; together with the principal medicinal plants not included in those pharmocopoeias. Accompanied with a circumstantial detail of their medicinal effects, and of the diseases in which they have been most successfully employed / [William Woodville].

  • Woodville, William, 1752-1805.
Date:
1832
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical botany. Containing systematic and general descriptions, with plates of all the medicinal plants, comprehended in the catalogues of the materia medica, as published by the Royal Colleges of Physicians of London, Edinburgh, and Dublin; together with the principal medicinal plants not included in those pharmocopoeias. Accompanied with a circumstantial detail of their medicinal effects, and of the diseases in which they have been most successfully employed / [William Woodville]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ¥ fessecl design of -which is not only to enable the reader to dis¬ tinguish with precision all those plants which are directed for medicinal use by the Colleges of London and Edinburgh, but to furnish him at the same time with a circumstantial detail of their respective virtues, and of the diseases in which they have been most successfully employed by different writers. A distinctive and characteristic knowledge of natural objects should certainly precede the consideration of their different properties and qualities; and with respect to plants, this know¬ ledge is seldom to be adequately attained by a mere verbal description : accurate delineations therefore become necessary, and this department is committed to Mr. Sowerby, an artist of established reputation, whose talents are not less conspicuous in the correctness than in the beauty of his designs. A It is justly a matter of surprize, that notwithstanding the universal adoption of the Linnaean system of Botany, and the great advances made in natural science, the works of Blackwell and Sheldrake should still be the only books in this country in which copper-plate figures of the medicinal plants are professedly given; while splendid foreign publications of them, by Regnault, Zorn, and Plenk, have appeared in the space of a very few years. These works however are far from superceding that now offered to the public; for without resorting to the inviduous task of pointing out their errors and imperfections, the author has the satisfaction of having exhibited Icons of several rare and valuable plants, which have never been completely figured in any preceding work whatever: and by subjoining some account of the botanical and medical history of each species, curiosity is more fully grati¬ fied, and a double interest is excited in the mind of the student. Duplex est dos lihelli.