Book Description

Excerpt from Dental Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Prescription Writing Certain general terms require definition or comment at the outset. M ateria medica, in a restricted sense, means the materials or substances used in medicine. In a broad sense, the term means the science that treats of drugs in their varied relations. Pharmacy is the science of preparing medicines for use. It includes not only the making of drug preparations, but also the art of compound ing and dispensing medicines. Pharmacology has had much the same meaning as materia medica in its broad sense, but it has more recently come to be applied to a distinct part of the science of drugs, that which treats of the action of drugs upon the tissues, organs and functions of the body. Therapeutics is the science and art of employing remedies in the treat ment of disease. While therapeutics should have a scientific basis in the knowledge of the action and effects of remedies, practical treatment of disease will always remain an art, because of the many modifying factors that render scientific precision impossible. Toxicology is that part of medical science which treats of poisons. It includes the action and effects of poisons, their detection, and the treatment of the conditions resulting from poisoning. As a standard for the purity and uniformity of drugs and prepara tions, we have the volume known as the United States Pharmacopoeia, which is the recognized authority for this country. Other countries have similar standards. The book does not treat of the action or uses of medicines, but, as its main object, it furnishes a list of recognized drugs, with descriptions, tests of purity, etc., and of preparations, with their formulas. The drugs and preparations thus recognized are called official. The book not only is the authority upon drugs and their preparations, but it forms the basis of our text-books on materia medica, pharmacy and therapeutics. The revision of 1900 for the first time contains also doses of official drugs and preparations. The abbreviation (u. S. P.) always indicates this work. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.