Excerpt from The Essentials of Materia Medica and Therapeutics The Author of the present volume has for some years devoted time and attention to a special study of the therapeutic action of drugs, and had hoped ere this to place the results of his labour before the Profession. In the progress of his task, however, he has discovered that every new fact obtained, suggested a new sub jcet for investigation and research, while the experience gained by clinical observation did not tend to diminish the difficulties which seemed to him to surround so exhaustless an inquiry. He was, moreover, unwilling to content himself with a compilation of the data collected by others, or with that apparent simplification of the subject so common in works on Therapeutics, but which too often results only from a hasty credence in statements consonant with the writer's ideas, and a neglect of others not in harmony with those preconceived conclusions. It was the intention of the Author to have appended to the present volume a more detailed account of his experience of the treatment of disease derived from clinical study, but the publica tion of the British Pharmacopoeia rendered it desirable that a text-book should be immediately in the hands of the Student and Practitioner of Medicine, and hence the second edition of the Essentials of Materia Medica and Therapeutics is now published alone. The Author still hopes, in the course of a few months, to bring before the Profession a separate volume devoted exclusively to the value of medicines in the treatment of disease, and embracing the whole subject of Therapeutics. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.