A Medical Consultation Book for practical purposes must necessarily contain a compilation of medical formulae authenticated by the most distinguished writers and pr-actitioners of the medical profession. It must be a work of almost unlimited scope - suggestive in a thousand ways, and an instrumentality to make available the best judgment and the highest skill of the medical consultant.

Having for many years in varied practice, civil and military, carefully selected, preserved, and, in many instances, tested the efficacy of favorite remedies and prescriptions in the practice, I have arranged them under a classification, as represented in this work. So important and satisfactory have been the results of this arrangement, that I frequently depended as much if not more on these authorities in the treatment of obstinate and serious cases, than on my own extemporaneous efforts. Seeing the value of such material on hand the collection has been extended from recent medical publications and placed within Ihe same classification; which is hereby tendered to the Medical Profession, under the expectation that it will lessen the labor and responsibility of the practitioner, and hoping at the same time it may advance the welfare of suffering humanity.

The book is mainly a work of compilation, and had to be so, to be true to its name and character. Its chief merit is in its authenticated prescriptions, and these are so classified as to secure readily the most approved treatment of almost any disease, and in any of its stages and complications. The diverse remedies recommended by different authorities to bring about the same effect, is an interesting feature in the collection, and should elicit special study and attention. In the treatment of some diseases, there is considerable sameness in some of the prescriptions; in others the greatest difference is observed, amounting almost to incongruity. But all have theft proper bearing and proper places in practice, and are usually the work of profound therapeutic diagnosis.

In our preliminary observations, it will be observed we have taken pains to glean valuable information on the action of medicine. This we consider indispensable, in order to place the remedies and prescriptions in the light of medical science, and in the belief, also, that it may exempt them from unjust criticism. A medical formula, presented to the profession by a high and respectable authority, should be accepted and respected. There may be nothing wrong about it, except, in its inapplicability to a case. And all remedies of the Materia Medica are liable to this objection. The material in our observations are likewise in a great measure authenticated, and for close exactness sometimes a point is given in the words of the author - not always in connection with the subject in which it originally appeared, but as a bare fact, and independent proposition.

The list of remedies in our Therapeutics, we have attempted to make as complete as possible. This is an important division of the work, affording a therapeutical analysis of all drugs and prescriptions mentioned.

The index, which is necessarily extensive to be complete, gives us the several current nomenclatures of each medicine, and of diseases, and diagnostic heading of nearly every prescription, as given by the different represented authorities.

We likewise deemed it of importance to give the recipes of such dietetic preparations as are usually needed for the feeble and the sick.

We would invite special attention to the uninterrupted enumeration of the remedies mentioned in Therapeutics, with the prescriptions that follow. This arrangement will favor the making of records of treatment, and of. prescribing by number, where practicable, thus, in a measure, doing away with that vexed question as to the personal ownership of a prescription, by confining it alone to the. dispensing druggist, as it should be.

In order to bring all improved medical treatment up to date, we have gleaned from many medical works (both foreign and domestic) of recent publication; and we would, in particular, express our indebtedness to the "Cincinnati Medical News," "American Lancet," of Detroit, Mich., "American Practitioner and News," of Louisville, Ky., "Pacific Medical and Surgical Journal," of San Francisco, Cal., and other leading medical files of the United States.

Through the courtesy of Parke, Davis & Co. and others, we were enabled to incorporate a full list of new remedies in our Therapeutics, that of late years have wrought so many important changes in the practice of medicine.

Austin, Texas. G. P. Hachenberg.