xii PREFACE. 



scriptions themselves, enable them to be exhibited in case of any 

 untoward event occurring. 



This danger has been greatly increased of late by the almost 

 universal junction of midwifery with apothecary practice, since 

 midwifery accustoms the general practitioner to considerjthe 

 saving or destruction of a human life as a mere matter of calcula- 

 tion ; as also by the recent extension of our knowledge respecting 

 vegetable poisons, and by the great attention which is now called 

 to the subject by the present fashionable study of medical juris- 

 prudence ; there being reason to apprehend, from the imitative 

 habits of mankind, that reading detailed accounts of crimes rouses 

 in some cases the latent sparks of vice, and at the best serves to 

 perfect badly-inclined persons in devising the securest modes of 

 effecting their purpose. 



To the original Pharmacopoeia some additions were made in 

 1627 and 1635 ; and in 1650 an improved edition came forth, to 

 which further additions were made in 1677. No alterations of 

 much consequence, howevei^vere made until 1720, when a new 

 edition was published unde^^l?^*ll»pi^^ of Sir Hans Sloane. 

 He being a botanist, the botanical names of tKe pla!ttte»i^ere added 

 to the officinal names, which was a great improvement. 



In a new edition, published in 1745, the system of curtailment, 

 begun by the Edinburgh College in 1738, was pursued to a con- 

 siderable extent, no compound being admitted but what had a 

 majority of voices in favour of its insertion : it was also at first 

 proposed to omit the drugs entirely, then to give only a list of 

 those used in making up the compounds in the work ; and at last 

 a list was made out of those which the majority of the committee 

 supposed to be the most efficacious, and the botanical names 

 were omitted. In this edition, the college first began the practice 

 of changing the names of articles, on account of the alleged 

 impropriety of their significations — a practice which has since been 

 carried to the greatest excess. 



Respecting the curtailments that were thus made in this edi- 

 tion, and which have occasioned the decline of pharmacological 

 knowledge among the profession, it may be observed, that the 

 object of a Pharmacopoeia being to fix the composition of what- 

 ever medicines physicians might be likely to order, it is evident 

 that the very contrary course to that pursued by the committee 



