4 
PHARMACY. 
301 
cellular, hollow stalk, about five or six inches 
high and one thick, of a wax-like friable sub- 
stance, and most fetid cadaverous smell, co- 
nical at each end, the base inserted in a 
white, concave, membranaceous, turbinated 
Copland the summit capped with a hollow, 
conical pileus, an inch long, having a reticu- 
lated cellular surface, its base detached from 
the stalk, and its summit umbilicated, the 
umbilicus sometimes perforated and some- 
times closed. As soon as the volva bursts, 
the' plant begins to diffuse its' intolerable 
odours, which are so powerful and widely 
expanded, that the fungus may be readily 
discovered by the scent only, before it ap- 
pears to the sight. 
PHARMACY, is defined the art of pre- 
paring, compounding, and preserving lnedi- 
citials. 
The preservation of medicines merely 
consists in the application of rules for collect- 
ing vegetable, animal, and mineral produc 
order to facilitate the agency of chemical at- 
traction, In trituration, the same effect is 
produced bv rubbing in place of beating the 
materials operated upon ; when this last is 
carried to a certain extent, and assisted by 
the addition of a fluid which does not act 
chemically upon this material, the process is 
denominated levigation. 
The above processes are facilitated by se- 
parating, from time to time, the coarser from 
the finer parts of the materials: hence the 
utility of sifting, or passing the powder over 
sieves with apertures of various diameters: 
hence likewise the pharmaceutical process of 
washing, or, as it is termed, elulriation, by 
which, although in a different mode, the 
same end is obtained as by sifting, the powder 
being agitated in a fluid which does not act 
upon it as a solvent, the larger particles im- 
mediately subside, from which the fluid sus- 
| pending the smaller is poured off, and suf- 
fered to remain at test until these last are ail 
Most of the metals are mechanically di- 
vided by the operation called granulation ; 
this consists of lirst tiling or beating the metal 
tions, at certain seasons, or under particular j deposited, 
circumstances, and of ensuring them against] v, ~ t 
the injuries they would suffer by exposure to j 
light, heat, air, moisture, &c. this, therefore, . . 
j s ° the least extensive, and peculiar depart- | into line leaves ; or by melting it, and during 
ment of the pharmaceutic art. It is the pre- j its state of fusion, pouring it into water, which 
faration and composition of medicinal's that condenses the separate globules : this process 
constitute the principal objects of that science : is denominated granulation, on account of 
of which we are here to treat. 
To prepare medicines, is to produce an I idrm of small giains. 
artificial Arrangement of their constituent! T he above then £ 
the metallic particles being separated in the 
are the principal of those 
change is effected in their nature, or their I ed as _ auxiliary or preliminary to such as 
,v. , • .. .1 .i-i it...:., 'more limner latrlv nromnte r.hemir.al action. 
either an essential I mec hanical operations which may be regard- 
medicinal essence is preserved, while their m « re immediately promote chemical action, 
1 ... .... or tend to effect an essential change m bo- 
dies : of these last the primary and most im- 
portant is solution. 
Solution, like pulverization, appears at 
first sight to be a simple process ; it is how- 
ever, in fact, an example of chemical attrac- 
tion exerted between the particles of a solid 
and of a fluid substance ; and although the 
solvent or active power is in vulgar concep- 
tion attributed to the latter, “ the attraction 
whence the solution proceeds is reciprocal, 
and is not more exerted by the one than by 
the other.” Solution, however, of bodies 
form undergoes a new modification. The 
first of these effects is invariably the result of 
chemical action ; the latter may be produced 
by mechanical and chemical agency, either 
singly or. combined. 
In the composition of medicines, no che- 
mical union is, in any case, effected ; for a 
change of principle is involved in the term 
chemical combination; whereas, by com- 
pounding medicines, we mean merely the 
mixing of them together for the purposes of 
increasing or diminishing, or otherwise modi- 
fying, their individual agency, of disguising , . , , , 
their taste and odour, or of giving them I j 111 water differs from most cases of chemica 
more convenient shape. combination, m scarcely effecting an actual 
Pharmacy, then, has the materia medica ^ an S e in th «r P™P CI ' ties 0 such bodies, 
for its objects, and for its instruments, the I ™ ls P rocess therefore may be regarded as 
means by which mechanical or chemical some measure, an exception to the general 
change is operated upon the ingredient, of law of chemical action .Solution is aided by 
which the materia medicals composed. The ; mechanical division; it is accelerated by agi- 
most orderly method, therefore, of consider- [ tatlol b an(1 111 m ° st "mtances proceeds w.tn a 
ing this subject will be, first to describe the ! ra P^ lt Y proportionate to the degree of tem- 
mode in which the component principles of P eralu '. e ^ wl ? ,ch the solvent and solvend 
substances are developed, separated and ^ ar f. objected ; because, by pulverization, am- 
combined, to enumerate such principles, or : a ! aon ’ aiK1, ‘ at ’ the power by which the 
g jve the analysis of medicinal articles ; and fomute particles of individual bodies are held 
secondly, to detail the individual processes of to ge Jiei js weakened, and thus mutual at- 
preparation, separation, and combination,! mcfimms expedited. ^ ^ 
with the general uses and average doses of . Solutionis differently denominated, accord- 
medicines thus combined, separated, or nig o the nature either of the solvent or sol- 
, vend, or tne manner in which the process is 
P re P ared * effected. 
PART I. 
■Pharmaceutical operations, and general ana- ,°!y i°. 
When we. have a combination of saline or 
lysis of the dij'erent substances used in 
medicine. 
Pulverization is a process too simple and 
common to require definition ; it consists in 
reducing substances to powder, by beating, 
*r forcibly overcoming the aggregative, in 
luble in one, and part in another fluid, the 
one portion may be separated from the 
other by the application of its appropriate 
solvent: such mode of solution is denominat- 
ed lixiviation, and the result obtained a ley. 
When a fluid is applied to any vegetable or 
animal matter, so. as to dissolve or attract 
only part of its principles, the operation is 
called extraction. If solution is effected 
without artificial heat, we denominate the 
process maceration ; if a moderate heat is em- 
ployed, digestion. When boiling fluid is 
poured upon a substance, and the vessel co- 
vered till the solution cools, the operation is 
termed infusion; and decoction it the fluid is 
actually bdiled upon the material's to be dis- 
solved. 
When we wish to obtain the solid matter 
that has been dissolved, the solution is ex- 
posed to heat, converted into vapour, and 
(hat part not capable by this degree, or 
mode of heat, of being volatilized or evapo- 
rated, is thus obtained in a solid form : tins 
process is denominated evaporation. Many 
substances, especially of the saline class, 
when thus treated, after the evaporating. pro- 
cess has been carried to a certain extent, 
concrete into hard masses, transparent, and 
of a regular form: such concretions are 
termed crystals, and the process which en- 
genders them crystallization. Crystals are 
abundantly formed in nature by slow and' 
spontaneous, in place of a hasty and artificial 
evaporation; indeed it has recently been ar- 
gued, that every modification of material 
substances deserves to be regarded as a cry- 
stal. The figure which the body assumes as 
the result of crystallization is invariable and 
peculiar to itself. Hence the classification of 
crystals, according to their form, as into 
prismatic, rhomboidal, &c. External circum- 
stances, however, often interfere with this 
regularity. 
The transparency of crystals, which is es- 
sential to their existence, depends upon a 
certain quantity of water diffused through 
them, called therefore their water of crystal-- 
lization ; when this is expelled, by whatever 
means, the density, pellucidity, and figure of 
the crystal, are lost. When crystals are thus 
destroyed, in consequence of exposure to air, 
they are said to effloresce. When water is 
absorbed by a crystal, so that it loses its 
crystalline, and assumes a moist condition, it 
is said to deliquesce. 
Precipitation is another mean by which a* 
solid is separated from a fluid body. If to a 
solution is added a substance having a more ' 
powerful attraction to the fluid than the sol- 
vent, the latter will be disunited, and thrown 
down or precipitated in a solid form ; or the 
added matter may enter into combination 
with the solvent itself, and produce a com- 
pound no longer soluble, which will conse- 
quently be in the'same manner precipitated. 
When from a given solution or mixture, 
the volatile rather than the fixed or solid 
matter is wished to be separated, the pro- 
cesses of distillation or sublimation are had 
recourse to : in the former, the materials are 
subjected to a given degree of heat in vessels 
formed so as to collect the vapour, and again 
condense or reduce it to fluidity ; by the lat- 
ter, the volatile matter is likewise separated, 
and again condensed, but the reduction is 
into the state not of fluidity but of solidity. 
After solution, fusion is the next in import- 
ance of pharmaceutical processes. This ope- 
ration is usually performed in vessels called 
crucibles, which are cups formed of black 
lead, of earthenware, or of some metal, to 
which heat is applied generally by a furnace. 
Fusion is employed in order to effect chetnE 
