592 



NATURE 



[January 28, 19 15 



artist — bring-s out chiefly the comical aspects of 

 animal life may, perhaps, be more appreciated by 

 the general reader. 



A chapter on cures for snake-bite is intended to 

 illustrate the play of vernacular superstition rather 

 than to explain the rational basis of European 

 methods of treatment, but since the history of 

 acquired immunity to snake-poison and of the 

 attendant discovery of antivenine is outlined, it is 

 a pity, perhaps, that the names of Sewall and 

 Calmette were not mentioned among; the great 

 original dramatis personae. 



THE NEW ISSUE OF THE BRITISH 

 PHARMACOPCEIA. 

 T^HE publication of a new issue of the British. 

 -L Pharmacopoeia is an event of considerable 

 importance to the medical as well as to the phar- 

 maceutical world. It reflects, so far as is com- 

 patible with official recognition, the changes that 

 ha\e taken place in the opinion of physicians as 

 to what drugs and preparations are of sufficient 

 importance to be included in it, and the opinion 

 of pharmacists as to how such drugs are to be 

 defined and such preparations of them to be made. 

 Though the Medical Act of 1858 requires that 

 the General Medical Council shall cause the 

 British Pharmacopoeia to be published, it is well 

 known that the labour of revision, in so far as it 

 relates to the monographs and appendices in the 

 work, has been carried out, practically in its en- 

 tirety, by the Committee of Reference in Phar- 

 macy to which somewhat scanty acknowledgment 

 is made in the preface. That to pharmacists alone 

 this most responsible part of the revision can 

 safely be entrusted has long been officially recog- 

 nised in most countries in which a pharmacopoeia 

 is published, and the opinion has been freely ex- 

 pressed that the time has now arrived when British 

 pharmacists should occupy a more satisfactory 

 position in the revision of future issues of the 

 British Pharmacopoeia. 



Such of the articles and preparations of the 

 Indian and Colonial Addendum of 1900 as were 

 deserving of retention have now been embodied in 

 the text, but it is observable that a large propor- 

 tion has been dropped ; of those retained the fol- 

 lowing alone are used to some extent in this 

 country : couch grass, arnica flowers, black 

 catechu, cotton-root bark, grindelia, ghatti gum, 

 rhizome and resin of Indian podophyllum, and 

 black haw bark. 



The additions to the Pharmacopoeia are not 

 numerous, there being only forty-three. The 

 most important of these are acetone, acetylsalicylic 

 acid, picric acid, adrenalin, barbitone (diethylbar- 

 bituric acid, also known as veronal), benzamine 

 lactate (beta-eucaine lactate), calcium lactate, 

 cantharidin, chloral formamide, cresol, diamor- 

 phine hydrochloride (diacetylmorphine hydro- 

 chloride), ethyl chloride, guaiacol, guaiacol car- 

 bonate, hexaminc (hexamethylenetetramine), 

 ipomoea root (the so-called Mexican scammony 

 root from which scammony resin may now be 

 obtained), solution of adrenalin hydrochloride, 



NO. 2361, VOL. 94] 



solution of formaldehyde, solution of formalde- 

 hyde with soap, methyl salicylate, methylsul- 

 phonal, phenolphthalein, resorcin, acid sodium 

 phosphate, strontium bromide, and theobromine 

 and sodium salicylate (diuretin). The number of 

 new synthetic drugs is therefore remarkably 

 small, and affords an indication of the opinion of 

 the medical profession of the permanent value of 

 the host of such remedies that have been intro- 

 duced during recent years. 



The omissions, 166, are far more numerous, the 

 following being the most important of the drugs 

 discarded : arnica rhizome, bismuth oxide, gam- 

 boge, cantharis (now replaced by cantharidin), 

 coca leaves (now replaced by cocaine and its 

 hydrochloride), saffron, galbanum, jaborandi 

 leaves (now replaced by pilocarpine nitrate), hops, 

 mezereon bark, calabar beans (now replaced by 

 physostigmine sulphate), elder flowers, sarsapa- 

 rilla, scammony and mustard. As a general rule 

 the preparations of discarded drugs have also been 

 omitted; of other preparations reference may be 

 made to the class of concentrated liquors, all of 

 which have been deleted. 



Alterations in strength are not numerous, nor 

 are they, with a few exceptions, important ; many 

 of them have been necessitated by the endeavour 

 to comply with the recommendations of the Brus- 

 sels International Conference, an endeavour which 

 has for practical purposes been effectively accom- 

 plished. The greatest change has been in tincture 

 of strophanthus, which is now four times as strong 

 as it used to be, and the most far-reaching that of 

 tincture of opium, which has been increased in 

 strength by one-third. 



Perhaps the most conspicuous change in the 

 Pharmacopoeia is the omission (except from the 

 doses) of all imperial weights and measures. The 

 dual system of the issue of 1898, which was a 

 constant source of trouble, has therefore been 

 abolished, and the formulae are in general now 

 arranged to produce 100 or 1000 parts by weight 

 or volume. The percentage composition is thus 

 evident at a glance, and considering the present 

 extensive use of metric weights and measures no; 

 inconvenience should arise from the change. The 

 use of the term "millilitre" instead of "cubic] 

 centimetre," appears strange at first, but it mustj 

 be admitted that the millilitre, though not in] 

 general use, is the more strictly correct designa- 

 tion. "Mil," "decimil," and "centimil," con-j 

 venient contractions that have been recognised byj 

 the Board of Trade, are used in stating the doses. 

 A " drop " is no longer a vague and variable quan- 

 tity ; in accordance with the International Agree- 

 ment the external diameter of the dropping tube 

 is to be exactly 3 millimetres, 20 such drops of 

 water at 15° being equivalent to i millilitre. 



Volumetric solutions are now designated as 

 N/t, N/io, etc., in agreement with common 

 usage. The directions for preparing these solu- 

 tions have been omitted from the appendices, 

 the statement only of the strength corresponding 

 to the designation being made. No fewer than 

 twenty-five volumetric solutions are employed in 



{\ 



