Abstract
‘MATERIA medica,’ in the conventional sense in which the term is used in this book, means knowledge of the diagnostic characters of natural drugs of botanical or zoological origin. In these days, when the factory has largely replaced the individual craftsman in the art of converting crude natural drugs into medicinal preparations, such knowledge is rarely required in practice, from either the medical man or the pharmacist, and it has been urged that this position should be recognised by appropriate changes in this branch of pharmaceutical education. Moreover, ‘Materia medica,’ as a subject in a course of pharmaceutical training, still includes many natural drugs, which have, or should have, ceased to interest orthodox medical men, except perhaps as items in the history of medicine, and on this ground also there is room for reform of the kind just indicated.
Pharmacognosy and Materia Medica: for Students in Pharmacy and Practising Pharmacists.
By Prof. Homer C. Washburn Walter H. Blome. With a Chapter on Vitamines and one on Insulin, by Water Pitz. Pp. xiii + 585. (New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1927.) 25s. net.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
[Book Reviews]. Nature 122, 538 (1928). https://doi.org/10.1038/122538c0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/122538c0