New London Pharmacopeia. 359 
_ Under the remaining heads of the Pharmacopeia, including plasters, 
ointments, &c., we observe nothing worthy of particular remark. Mr, 
Phillips has added to his translation a series of woodcuts, exhibiting 
the must commonly occurring crystalline furms of the principal salts, 
&c., which, as far as they go, are useful, as being more explanatory 
than mere descriptions, and the pupil ought, for several reasons, to 
be acquainted with the ordinary figures which these bodies exhibit ; 
but, as before observed, the measurements of angles and inclinations of 
surfaces which accompany the description of the salts are not, we con= 
ceive, very important to the utility of a work like this. We are also 
somewhat disappointed at the brevity of the original remarks and scan- 
tiness of the criticisms, where there is so much room and opportunity 
for both, and more especially when we advert to the diligence and acu- 
men, sometimes perhaps a little too highly seasoned, with which our 
author animadverted upon the glaring errors and abundant inconsis- 
tencies of the former Pharmacopeia. Something more also might 
have been said of the medical uses and forms of prescribing the lead- 
ing articles; indeed we doubt whether the present extremely concise 
notices culled chiefly from Dr. Paris’s Pharmacologia, had not better 
have been omitted. But we must not complain: these things are not 
in Mr, Phillips’s way, and upon the whole we are indebted to him for 
many useful hints and pertinent remarks. 
We wish,.in conclusion, to disclaim the remotest intention of dis- 
respect towards the College in any of the remarks which we have 
found it necessary to offer upon their Pharmacopeia, and which, with 
all its imperfections, we have already acknowledged among the best 
extant. There seems, therefore, to be some hidden impediment 
to the compilation of a rational Pharmacopeeia, and at all events it 
must not be assumed as a standard of the talents of its nominal edi- 
tors; there must be something radically wrong in the mode of mas 
naging the matter, and before the College give us another edition, we 
trust they will seriously consider the subject, and adopt some less 
exceptionable mode of proceeding. We apprehend that the whole 
business should be unconditionally delegated to three or five indi- 
viduals, who should alone have power, and be solely responsible: 
they should moreover be well paid for their trouble, and no expense 
should be spared in furnishing them means of information and research. 
The Committee which determines by vote what formule are to exist 
and what to be expunged, should certainly be broken up: the men 
of practical eminence in the College have no time to attend to it; and 
the mcn of science are, if we mistake not, wearied out by the perse- 
vering prosers and obstinate ancients with which all such Committees 
are pestered, 
