story of
the medical sciences for educational purposes and research, and to
increase man's knowledge in fighting disease and promoting health.

Thus, from a few hundred specimens of crude drugs in the Section of
Materia Medica of 83 years ago, there has developed a Museum Division
today which embraces the evolution of the health professions through the
ages. This Division now has the largest collection in the Western
Hemisphere of historical objects which are related to the healing arts.
The reference collections are available to the researcher and scholar,
and the exhibits are intended for pleasure and educational purposes in
these fields. The plans for expansion have no limitation as we keep pace
with man's progress in the medical sciences and continue to collect
materials that contributed to the historical development in the fight
against diseases and the attempts to secure better health for everyone.

Footnotes:

[1] _Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian
Institution for the Year 1882_ [hereinafter referred to as the
_Smithsonian Annual Report_], pp. 101-103; and introductory
"advertisement" to the lectures published by the Smithsonian Institution
in its Miscellaneous Collections (see bibliography).

[2] Dr. J. J. Woodward's lecture explained the progress of medical
knowledge of morbid growth and cancerous tumors from 1865 to 1872. It
cautioned that uncertain methods of diagnosis at that time allowed
charlatans and uneducated practitioners to report cures of cancer in
instances where nonmalignant growths were "removed by their caustic
pastes and plasters."

[3] The two longest intervals were in preparing the last two lectures:
the ninth in 1884, and the tenth, 1889. Both came after the
establishment in 1881 of the Section of Materia Medica in the U.S.
National Museum, to display the development and progress of the health
professions.

[4] _Annual Report of the Secretary of the Navy for the year 1883_, pp.
190, 614-615.

[5] For classifying chemical compounds, Dr. Flint relied on the work of
H. E. Roscoe and C. Schorlemmez, _A Treatise on Chemistry_, 2 vols. (New
York: D. Appleton, 1878-1800.)

[6] _Annual Report of the Secretary of the Navy for the year 1882_, vol.
2, part 2, pp. 100, 228, 656-657. Dr. Flint in his article "Report on
Pharmacopoeias of All Nations," ibid., pp. 655-680, remarks that there
were then 19 official pharmacopoeias in the world, besides three
semiofficial