as a curator until his
retirement from the Smithsonian Institution in 1912.

[Illustration: Figure 3.--REAR ADMIRAL JAMES M. FLINT, U.S. Navy surgeon
and first honorary curator of the Section of Materia Medica. (_Photo
courtesy of the Library of Congress._)]

The Section commenced with a wealth of material. After the close of the
1876 centennial exhibition, its _materia medica_ collection had been
stored with the other collections in a warehouse, awaiting an
appropriation by Congress for transfer and installation. This collection
was gradually brought into the new National Museum after that building's
completion in 1881. Many other _materia medica_ specimens were
transferred from the Department of Agriculture. In addition to these
large collections of crude drugs, generous contributions came from
several prominent pharmaceutical firms such as Parke, Davis & Company of
Detroit, Michigan; Wallace Brothers of Statesville, North Carolina; and
Schieffelin and Company of New York City. These manufacturing houses are
mentioned here because they and their agents abroad were the first to
take interest and donate to the Section, complete assortments of
contemporary remedial agents then in common use throughout the United
States and Europe, besides many hundreds of "rare and curious drugs."
Thus, in spite of difficulties encountered from bringing several
collections into the building at one time, the _materia medica_
exhibition got off to a good start.

It was Dr. Flint, the first curator, who stated in 1883 that remedial
agents used by a nation or a community are as indicative of the degree
of their cultural development and standard of living as is the nature of
their food, the character of their dwellings, and their social and
religious traditions. Therefore, he felt that collections of drugs and
medical, surgical and pharmaceutical instruments and appliances should
not be thought of or designed as instructive to the specialist only, but
should also possess a general interest for the public. Because of these
objectives, Dr. Flint added, this section was conceived as a
departmental division for the collecting and exhibiting of objects
related to medicine, surgery, pharmacology, hygiene, and all material
related to the health field at large.[4]

During his first term of curatorship (1881-1884), Dr. Flint devoted much
of his time to sorting, examining, identifying, and classifying the
_materia medica_ specimens.[5] In 1881, he