New London Pharmacopeia. 357 
most merciful criticism, observing by the way, that in compound- 
ing their wines the College seem to have had an inverse eye upon 
Mrs. Glass’s water pudding, so called, as she facetiously tells us, 
because made with wine only. 
“« This preparation,” says Mr. Phillips, “ is tartrate of potash 
and iror, with excess of supertartrate of potash, which is probably 
intended to supply the place of the acid contained in the wine for- 
merly employed, and to effect the perfect solution of tartarized iron 
in the weak spirit. 
“The quantity of iron directed to be used is very nearly such, that 
if it were all acted upon by the supertartrate of potash, and dis- 
solved by the spirit, the strength of the present preparation would 
almost exactly equal that which I found the former to possess. But 
three causes prevent this: first, the whole of the iron is not acted 
upon by the tartar; secondly, a part of that which is converted into 
tartarized iron, is rendered insoluble by drying; and thirdly a 
portion which is dissolved by the water is immediately precipitated 
by the spirit. I find that owing to these circumstances, a pint of the 
present vinum ferri contains only sixteen grains of peroxide, instead 
of twenty-two grains, which an equal quantity of the former pre- 
paration held in solution.” 
Among the preparations of mercury we think that the red oxide, 
the grey oxide, and the sulphurets, might without much inconve-= 
nience to any one have been omitted. The formula for calomel is 
most unequivocally improved ; it is, indeed, the best extant; that for 
corrosive sublimate would be the better for a little alteration in the 
proportion of the materials. The solution of corrosive sublimate is 
here called Ziquor and not vinum, as is the case with that of emetic 
tartar ; but it should not have been among the formule, for it is 
liable to decompose, and in remedies of such activity every thing 
depends upon the accuracy of the proportion held in solution. We 
wish the College had been prevailed upon to reject their present 
names for calomel and corrosive sublimate; and that Mr. Phillips 
had not added to the proper chloridic explanation of their composi- 
tion and formation, the incorrect and exterminated muriatic hypo- 
thesis; he seems to have done it out of compliment to the College, 
“« who,” he says, ‘* do not appearto have adopted the modern views 
of the nature of muriatic acid ;’’ but no authority can justify the 
perpetuation of error. 
The preparations of lead remain much as in the former Pharma~ 
copwia, excepting that the term sub-carbonate is now improperly 
used for what before was properly called carbonate. The formula 
for acetate of lead is now no longer necessary; it is prepared of 
great purity, and ata low price by the wholesale manufacturer, and 
might therefore have been transferred to the Materia Medica. _ 
The formula for oxide zinc is much ameliorated by substituting 
precipitation of the sulphate by ammonia, for the old process of com= 
