Hhtory of Akhymy. fiM 



of whitnsical and complex vessels, in glass and porcelain, are 

 described and depicted in their works, and they not only pos- 

 sessed all the furnaces with which our modern laboratories arft 

 necessarily supplied, but were particularly expert in their con- 

 struction, and often surprisingly happy in their application. 



Art. II. Remarks on the " Code des Medicamens ou Phar- 

 macopee Fran^aise." By R. Phillips, F.R.S.E., F.L.S., ^c. 



We are informed in the Ordonnance d.u Roi, prefixed to this 

 work, that the last edition of it was published in 1748, and it 

 is perhaps the only part of French legislation that has not been 

 altered in the eventful period which has since occurred. 



There were several reasons for supposing that the long pro- 

 mised Code which has now appeared would exhibit the numerous 

 improvements so imperiously demanded by the state of science, 

 and the nature of the Pharmacopceia of 1748, and we accor- 

 dingly find that names of the highest rank in science have been 

 mentioned to sanction the work ; still I suspect that from 

 causes which have operated in other places besides France, 

 those who ought to have formed the Pharmacopoeia have had 

 but little share in its execution. 



The remarks which I propose submitting upon this work, 

 are not intended to be considered in the character of a regular 

 analysis ; this would be a task, for the performance of which 

 I can scarcely imagine any sufficient inducement to exist ; 

 and it is the less necessary, because its nature is so evidently 

 stamped upon every page, that the whole may be fairly judged 

 of by the slightest inspection. 



The avowed object in publishing the present work is one of 

 the greatest merit ; of the new dispensatory it is observed, and 

 with great justice, " il etait necessaire de rofFrir, d'une part, 

 charge d' un nombre beaucoup moindre de medicamens com- 

 poses, plus riche, de I'autre, en preparations simples et executees 

 par des procedes decrits avec plus de correction et d' exac- 

 titude." 



