Abstract
MR, H. S. REDGROVE contributes an interesting article to the Gardeners' Chronicle of May 11 describing a very complete work on “Medical Botany, containing Systematic and General Descriptions, with Plates, of all the Medicinal Plants, indigenous and exotic, comprehended in the Catalogues of the Matcria Medica,… accompanied by a Circumstantial Detail of their Medicinal Effects, and of the Diseases in which they have been most successfully Employed”. This remarkable work was from the pen of Dr. William Woodville (1752–1805). It was published first in monthly parts, but later in three volumes and a supplement (1790–94). Woodville's life is described briefly in the article under review, and his peculiar qualifications for the work are emphasised. One cannot but fool regret, as Mr. Redgrove quotes passages from “Medical Botany”, that such herbs as Potentilla erecta have passed from medicinal use, for their employment seems to have been determined by very exact knowledge. 210 drawings by Sowerby were included in the work, which was written in a thoroughly scientific spirit.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Medical Botany of the Eighteenth Century. Nature 136, 216 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/136216c0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/136216c0