Page:An introduction to pharmacognosy (1905).djvu/9

 PREFACE.

The following Introduction has been prepared with the hope that it may meet the needs of students of pharmacognosy in our schools of pharmacy.

In general scope it follows the well-established lines already laid down by our European confrères, departing in many particulars, however, from most works published heretofore in this country. Thus special emphasis has been laid on the microscopic rather than the macroscopic characters of drugs, although the latter have not been entirely neglected, and considerable attention has been given to the description of drug powders.

While there have been many manuals in which the student of plant structures could find ample instruction concerning general histological features, no work has been offered in this country which deals with the special individual anatomical characters of different drugs. Such works have been issued in Germany by Moeller, Tschirch, Meyer, Marmé, Flückiger, and others, and the monumental volume of Plancon and Collin, nearly two thousand pages, testifies in a measure to the value set by the French upon such studies Greenish, of London, in 1903 gave to the English pharmacists a guide similar in general features to the volume here presented.

The present Introduction has been in preparation for some time, and here appears, not as a stupendous volume such as those of Flückiger or Plancon and Collin, but in a compressed and convenient form. This form, rather than that of an enormous reference book has been de-