First Sentence

"IN presenting this work on Crude Organic Remedies-the Constituents of Plants, and their Officinal Preparations-I do not propose to "run a tilt" against any of the systems of Medical Practice, however much some of them may be opposed to common sense and reason, and to the Divine ordinances of Nature ; nor shall I treat with contempt the teachings and practices of great and wonderful names, or oppose the pride, interest, expectation, and conscientious convictions of a learned, honorable, and influential profession; my object is simply to present many new and curious, if not startling facts, not only well worthy of the earnest consideration of the more intelligent portion of the community, who demand reasons the most profound to lead them to conviction of a TRUTH, but of the great mass of humbler people, who desire, amid all the great Reforms in human society, above all things to secure a "sound mind in a sound body," and to feel something of that exalted state of happiness which alone can arise from the possession of the most robust and rubicund physical and moral HEALTH."