PRARMACOPGIA COLLEGI REGII MEDICORUM EDINBURGENSIS. 
83 
ions occur in the preparation of one or eum medicina exulare qui‘jam in chemia 
two of the mercurials, the tartar emetic, 
&c. but none of any great importance. 
For the sake of uniformity, we sup- 
pose, the indications of the perfect cau- 
sticity of potash have been omitted; it 
would have been equally uniform, and a 
‘very valuable addition, if a few direc- 
tions had. been added to each recipe to 
“ascertain the purity of the preparation 
by chemical tests. 
As we do not pretend to give an accu- 
rate comparison of the old and new edi- 
tions, many smaller alterations and im- 
provements may have escaped our no- 
tice; but, on the whole, they are cer- 
tainly few, and from the specimen be- 
fore us, we may fairly conclude that they 
are real improvements, 
From the great and increasing con- 
sumption of the artificial mineral waters, 
_ these valuable preparations, which are 
strictly pharmaceutical, and in no de- 
gree concealed by empiricism, might 
perhaps have deserved some notict. 
Was it an oversight to omit prescrib- 
ing the use of Woulfe’s apparatus, in 
making the caustic ammonia, or is the 
distillation of the water from the alka- 
dine materials the method actually em- 
i ployed? 
The change of nomenclature, as we 
have before mentioned, is very extensive, 
for, besides smaller corrections, all the 
terms of the chemical preparations have 
been reformed from the new nomencla- 
ture, latinized, as in Dr. Pearson’s 
tables; and all the appellations of the 
vegetable materia, medica have received 
the Linnean or approved systematic 
names. On.the former class the follow- 
ing very candid and temperate observa- 
tions are given in the preface. 
vior autem labor nos haud parum mo- 
ratus est, in describendis variis przpa- 
tatis & compositis que inter medica- 
menta recensentur. NHzc omnia pro- 
positum fuit iis solis nominibus definire 
quz jam apud optimos hujus seculi che- 
micos mvaluerunt. Horum sermo no- 
vus & quasi proprius, etsi nondum om- 
nibus suis numeris & partibus absolutus, 
tamen ad scientiz usus videtur accommo- 
datissimus, et adeo necessarius, ut non du- 
bitemus eum, ut jam a junioribus recep- 
tus est, ita ab omnibus medicis &- medi- 
camentariis brevi receptum iri, Horum 
sermo in re medicameiitaria olim recep- 
tus, non alius erat quam vetus chemicus: 
igitur, ut nobis videtur, aquum est 
“ Gra- 
\ 
prorsus obsolevit.”” —_- 
The merits and defects of the moder 
chemical nomenclature have long been 
before the public, its value is generally 
acknowledged, and the elegant simpli- 
city and facility of acquirement have 
deservedly rendered it the vernacular 
tongue of chemists in every part of Eu- 
rope. The principle of including a de- 
finition in every term, has however made 
it, in many parts, cumbersome and ver- 
bose, and we must say, that in the pre- 
sent instance, examples of this defect are 
occasionally occurring, notwithstanding 
the pains which, we afe told in the pre- 
face, are taken to avoid it. Was there no 
other way of informing the physician or 
apothecary how the crocus of antimony 
is made, than by cdmpelling him to call 
it, the oxidum antimonii cum sulphure per 
nitratem potasse: or litharge, the oxidum 
lumbt semivitreum ? 
We have however another, and, we 
think, a weightier objection to urge 
against the unlimited use of the present 
nomenclature. As long as medicines are 
prepared from the written prescriptions 
of physicians, the errors that attend va- 
rious, and often hasty writings, must 
be taken into account; and the conse- 
quence of these esrors will be, not a 
failure in some chemical experiment, the 
waste of a few ounces of acid or alkah, 
and a few hours or days’ labour, but 
perhaps a violent disease produced on a 
fellow-creature already suffering; per- 
haps, even a sudden and painful death ; 
and to the prescriber, an unmerited loss 
of reputation, and incalculable anxiety. 
Therefore it is, that the names given to. 
powerful medicines should ~be as clear, 
precise, and distinct as possible, similar 
to no other, and religiously preserved to 
that and to no other preparation. These 
dangers are not imaginary ; we know a 
valuable life nearly sacrificed to the un- 
fortunate resemblance between nitrum and 
natron; We know an only child destroyed 
by an unhappy error of the sign for 
ounce instead of that for dram; we could 
procure well authenticated instances of 
calamitous accidents arising from the 
similarity between finctura opii and tinctura 
opti campharata; hydrargyrus muriotus, and 
hydrargyrus 5 muriatus mitis acidum vitrioli- 
cum, and acidum vitriolicaum dilutum, and 
other such unfortunate specimens of ill- 
judging adherence to systematic reform. 
Could not the same prudent caution whier 
