The Elements of Materia Medica and Therapeutics: Volume 1

This encyclopaedic work, a pioneering text in pharmacology, is reissued here in its revised and expanded fourth edition (1854–7).

Jonathan Pereira (Author)

9781108068444, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 23 January 2014

1014 pages, 151 b/w illus.
22.9 x 15.2 x 5.8 cm, 1.46 kg

After training as an apothecary and surgeon, Jonathan Pereira (1804–53) taught materia medica for many years. His lectures at the medical school in London's Aldersgate Street were highly successful and formed the basis for the first edition of his major encyclopaedic work on medicinal substances. A pioneering text in the field of pharmacology, Pereira's work, which he subsequently updated in further editions, provided pharmacists and medical professionals with a more rigorous scientific understanding of the drugs and remedies they prescribed. After Pereira's death, medical jurist Alfred Swaine Taylor (1806–80) and physician George Owen Rees (1813–89) prepared this revised and expanded fourth edition, interspersed with instructive woodcuts. Volume 1 (1854) includes discussion of 'physical remedies' such as heat, cold and electricity, and 'hygienic remedies' of diet, exercise and climate. It then focuses on general pharmacological practice and specific drugs, describing the medicinal properties of inorganic compounds.

Preface to the fourth edition
Prolegomena
Part I. Psychical or Mental Remedies: 1. External affections of the mind
2. Internal affections of the mind
Part II. Physical but Imponderable Remedies: 1. Light
2. Heat
3. Cold
4. Electricity
5. Magnetism
Part III. Hygienic Remedies: 1. Food
2. Exercise
3. Climate
Part IV. Mechanical and Surgical Remedies
Part V. Pharmacological Remedies: 1. General pharmacology
2. Special pharmacology.

Subject Areas: Botany & plant sciences [PST]