798 
ters, &c.; and the like of the rest. The 
animal kingdom is described in the same 
Way. - 
_ The last part is a catalogue of all the 
medicines, simple and compound, with 
a short character affixed to each. There 
is here what we should not have expected 
to find in a respectatle book, the bill of 
some quack proprietor of a certain Ame- 
rican elixir, printed at full length, which 
seems to rival Dr. Solomen’s Balm of 
Gilead, or Dr. Sibly’s Solar Tincture. 
As a whole, M: La Grange’ manual 
would hardly excite much interest in 
this country, but some .of the observa- 
tions on certain parts of pharmacy shew 
considerable skill and practice, and it is 
MEDICINE, SURGERY, ANATOMY, &c. 
greatly to be attributed to the multipf- 
city of articles, and extreme variety of 
preparations in the French pharmdaco- 
paid, that the apothecaries if Paris have 
been some of the ablest chemists thet 
have ever adorned the science, and have 
reflected honour on the whole country. © 
Among the more uncommon but use- 
ful articles in this collection, we firid a 
description (with a plate) of a spara- 
drapier, or machine to spread sticking- 
plasters ; and a simple machine to roll 
and cut pills, whieh appears to have 
all the requisite qualifications for suc- 
cess, and we believe is actually used in 
London in some of the larger apothe- 
caries or druggists’ shops. 
Art. LIX: Pharmacopaia Collesii Regii Medicorum Edinburgensis. 
WHEN the eighth edition of the 
Edinburgh Pharmacopoeia was pub- 
lished in 1792, it was received with the 
respectful attention due to the learned 
body who promuigated it; and as a 
rational, elegant, and simple code of 
pharmacy, it has for ten years main- 
tained a distinguished rank over Europe. 
The public will naturally enquire 
why, at so short an interval, it has now 
been thought necessary to introduce a 
new code, which, in its external aspect 
at least, differs so materially from that 
which i$ already established. A closer 
examination, however, will shew that 
the gréater part of this difference is only 
in appearance; the real acquisitions to 
pharmacy have been but few during this 
period ; and yt is chiefly in nomenclature 
that the present edition requires our at- 
tention. However, as the ‘¢ denuo lima- 
tam auctamque” is something more than a 
mere form of speech, we shall first very 
briefly point out, the omissions and ad- 
ditions that strike us, and the improve- 
ments in the pharmaceutical processes. 
The materia medica has undergone a 
further expurgation, and many articles 
of doubtful value or difficult to -be prov- 
ed, are expunged. When a pharmaco- 
peia is considered, as it ought to be, 
simply as a direction to the apothecary 
what articles he is to keep in his shop, 
and how he is to compound them, a 
very great simplicity may be allowed of, 
and nothing should be admitted but what 
the physician may reasonably expect to 
meet with, not in every country village 
indeed, but in all towns where pharma- 
cy is on a respectable footing. ‘The 
college seem to have acted on this prirt 
ciple, otherwise we might think that 
they were sifting too close and throwing 
away good grain with the chaff, when 
they rejected such articles as the absyi- 
thium, arum, asarumh, curcumd, gitiseng, 
oxalis . acetosella; Rymusserpyllum, and 2 
few others of equal claims. The fate of 
‘the lichen islandicus is a little singular ; in 
the edition of 1792 it was retained, in 
the present it is expunged; and, if it 
continues in fashion so long; in some fu- 
ture edition ten yéars hence, it must pe- 
tition for readmittance, on the testimony 
of one or two entire pamphlets that have 
been written in its favour. 
Unless we have looked over the cata- 
logue too hastily, we find no additions 
to the materia medica ; nor are any men‘ 
tioned in the preface. 
The pharmaceutical part remains 
nearly the same, except with some small 
variations in the chemical processes. 
Among the sales and salina, the ra« 
dical vinegar is very properly intro- 
duced, the process is that of (we be- 
lieve) a M. Badolier, a French chemist, 
distilling the sulphate of iron: with the 
acetite of lead; the nitrous acid is made 
with a greater portion of sulphuric acid, 
which prevents the fusion of the glass 
retort; the nitric acid is new, the super- 
carbonated potash and soda, and the 
hydro-sulphuret, of ammonia are very 
important additions, the muriats of ba- 
rytes and of lime less so, but certainly de- 
serve their place. 
he only addition that we can find to 
the metallic preparations is, the preci- 
pitated carbonate of iron: some varia- 
