Introduction to the scanned version

The Dispensatory of the United States of America

edited by

Joseph P. Remington, Horatio C. Wood and others.

Twentieth Edition (1918)

Scanned version copyright © 2003–2019 Michael Moore. Used with permission.
This is the .html version. You'll find the .pdf version on Michael's site.

NOTE:

The ultimate authority in pharmacy in it's era, the 20th edition, edited by Remington and Wood, is 2000 large pages filled with small type. Though the 19th edition was less judgmental regarding unofficial medicinal plants, the 20th edition is firmer in its science and botany. Although already showing signs of belittling many plant medicines (Remington and Wood were the ultimate mainstream pharmaceutical editors), pharmacists nonetheless still had to prepare medicines for the thousands of Eclectic, Homeopathic and "irregular" licensed M.D.s that practiced, so all plants are dealt with in often painful detail. I am abridging it to include only botanicals and their preparations. It will take a couple of months to finish, so I am breaking it up into aphabetical files...this thing is huge.

This was the last era in pharmacy when plant drugs were widely prepared, both for Regular School, Eclectic and Irregular physicians, and the Dispensatories were the major reference works used by pharmacists to prepare these products. Official plant drugs and preparations are in larger case, unofficial plant drugs and preparations are in smaller case. I have extracted all plant drugs and preparations, excluded non botanicals and those most reasonably used only by physicians ... Opium, Digitalis, etc.

-- Michael Moore.

Thank you, Michael, for these files!

This one isn't all that well organized (honest - call one entry Absinthium but another Artemisia frigida, put Arisaema under Arum, add lots of really minor entries under either a random common or their latin name ... I'd understand if the lot were by latin name, but the only word for it as it stands is "it's a mess".). The editors are also quite disdainful of actual uses of herbs, preferring to list constituents wherever they can, instead.

However, this dispensatory does contain info not yet found on this site, so enjoy!

--Henriette.

The Dispensatory of the United States of America, 1918, was edited by Joseph P. Remington, Horatio C. Wood and others.