Pages 9 to 82.
Part First.—THE MATERIA MEDICA, as in actual use to-day by American Physicians. (Alphabetically arranged.)
This part embraces all those Simple Medicinal Substances (that is, drugs and chemicals) which are in current and well-established use in the medical practice of this country; or which, if too recently introduced to be as yet in general use, are vouched for by eminent authorities in medical science;—also, the medicinally employed Pharmaceutic Preparations recognized by the United States Pharmacopœia.
(Added thereto, for the convenience of those practitioners who prescribe them, are Medicamentous Mixtures advertised only to the Profession, but whose composition or mode of manufacture has not been made known with sufficient completeness or exactness to satisfy all members of the Profession. In the selection the publishers have been guided solely by the recognition accorded the various preparations by the Profession, according to the best information obtained.)
There has also been included, under the title of "Foods and Dietetic Preparations," a list of such preparations as are frequently prescribed for infants' diet, or for the sick or convalescent.
Omitted from the Materia Medica chapter are: Medicaments that have become obsolete, or that are too rarely used to be of general interest; and such new remedies as are not yet safely accredited on reliable authority; also those galenic preparations (syrups, extracts, pills, essences, elixirs, wines, emulsions, etc.) which are not standardized according to the U.S. Pharmacopœia; likewise all articles that are put up and advertised for self-medication by the lay public.
Separate Titles in the alphabetic series are accorded, as a rule, to the botanical drugs and other pharmaceutical mother-substances, to proximate principles (alkaloids, glucosides, organic acids, etc.), and to chemical compounds (salts, "synthetics," etc.); while the official galenic preparations, solutions and dilutions, derived from them, are mostly mentioned under the titles of their respective mother-substances. (Thus, for instance, "Dover's Powder" will be found under "Opium," while "Morphine" is described under its own title.)
(Smaller type has been employed—in order to economize space—for botanic drugs, gums, and some others of the older drugs and preparations which are so long and well known that but little reference will need be made to them.)
(Those substances of the Materia Medica which can be had of the Merck brand are—for the convenience of prescribers—so designated).