178 Miscellanies. 



of detail and such a "lynx-eyed revision of the press" as a pharma- 

 copoeia, could scarcely be expected to escape without faults, if left 

 to a cowmtil^ee for revision, yet we must confess, after reading this 

 review, that the conclusion is forced upon us, either that this intend- 

 ed national work was committed to very incompetent hands, or that 

 both the compilers and revisers were extremely remiss in their du- 

 ties. The inference to us appears inevitable, that " with all these 

 imperfections the work could not, under any circumstances, gain the 

 confidence of the profession, nor be received as the general standard." 

 But to this impression, so unfavorable to the state of chemical and 

 pharmaceutical science in the United States, we find a relief in a re- 

 view, evidently by the same writer, in the next number of the Jour- 

 nal, (April, 1831,) of "The Pharmacopoeia of the United States of 

 America. By authority of the National Medical Convention, held 

 at Washington, 1830. Philadelphia: 1831." This convention was 

 held in conformity to the provisions made by the Convention of 1820, 

 for a decennial meedng of delegates at Washington, for the special 

 purpose of revising the Pharmacopoeia. It appears from the state- 

 ment of the reviewer, that from certain difficulties and misapprehen- 

 sions, (which we need not take time to explain,) two conventions 

 were held, one at New York and one at Washington. To the former 

 we are indebted for the New York edition of 1830; to the latter for 

 the Philadelphia edition of 1831. 



We know not how much influence, (or whether any at all,) sec- 

 tional prejudices, or the rivalship of schools, may have had in the pro- 

 duction of these two rival editions of the National Pharmacopoeia. 

 But unless the objections made by this able reviewer to the former of 

 these editions, and the general eulogium bestowed on the latter, can 

 be proved to be exaggerations, (and we must say that on the face of 

 his shewing, it would be difficult, we conceive, to substantiate a charge 

 of incorrectness, or of improper bias,) there can be no hesitation, in 

 respect to these two editions, which of them ought to be recommend- 

 ed to the medical student. 



The ninth and last published number of the Journal of Pharmacy, 

 contains an account of Liriodendrine, or the bitter principle of the 

 Liriodendron Tulipifera ; by Professor Emmet of the University of 

 Virginia. The chemical characters of this substance are well stated 

 in the memoir. It has hitherto passed for a resin, which, when not 

 crystallized, it much resembles, but its volatility and other characters 

 seem to place it, as the writer observes, with camphor, as a connect- 

 ing link between the resins and volatile oils. 



