USNM Curators Annual Reports - Materia Medica, 1881

What substances are especially useful as ingredients in medicine? What effect will these "materia medica" have? In 1881, as the United States's first National Museum was in its infancy, its various departments were focused on building authoritative collections that would be useful in building and expanding knowledge. The Museum's curators summarized their departments' work in annual reports. Sometimes they reported more frequently. The Department of Materia Medica's 1881 report is the first in a collection of over 80 years of curators annual reports. Please help us transcribe this first in an extended series of narrative reports and make this popular research collection even more accessible.