150 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
livers (liver of sulphur) under similar conditions. When Fowler 
prepared his arsenical solution in 1786, the new nomenclature of 
acids, bases and salts of Lavoisier and his committee of four (1787) 
had not been worked out. Moreover, he desired particularly to 
omit any reference to arsenic, hence he called his preparation 
(t Mineral Solution”. 38 Somewhat later the solution was merely 
known as Liquor (solwHo) arsenicalis Fowleri and as such became 
official in the London Pharmacopoeia of 1809. 
In the U. S. P. of 1820 the English title is still “ Arsenical solu¬ 
tion”, but in the Latin title an attempt was made to make it con¬ 
form with the new nomenclature of the antiphlogistic system of 
chemistry, hence Liquor Potassae Arseniatis. 39 Whether this 
should read Arsenitis and whether it is to be assumed that the ad¬ 
ditional “a” is due to a typographical error, it may be too late to 
ascertain. The 1830 Philadelphia edition makes the correction: 
Liquor Potassae Arsenitis, whereas the New York edition uses 
Liquor Arsenicalis as the official Latin title and Solution of Arsen- 
ite of Potass, as well as Fowler’s solution as English synonyms for 
Arsenical Solution. 
The change from the oxygen acid to the hydrogen acid nomen¬ 
clature, viz. to Liquor Potassii Arsenitis ,, is made in 1870 and con¬ 
tinues throughout after that date. Fowler’s name appears only 
in connection with the synonyms for the New York 1830 edition 
and in the revisions of 1880, 1900 (index only) and 1910. 
A list of recent pharmacopoeia! titles follows with references to 
sources. 40 
38 In his report, preface page x, Fowler, makes the following statement: 
“ as the idea of poison seems to be so strongly connected with that of ar¬ 
senic, it will be found to be very difficult to separate them in the mind, when¬ 
ever that term is named; and therefore to correct as much as possible such 
disagreeable ideas, in the practice of the healing art, the medicine now about 
to be introduced to the notice of the public, will be distinguished by the name 
Mineral Solution.” 
39 Up to the present date the British Pharmacopoeia refuses to apply a chem¬ 
ical designation to this solution, but calls it Liquor Arsenicalis. In comment¬ 
ing on the British usage the editors of the U. S. Dispensatory, 13th ed. in 1872, 
make the following statement: “The name by which this preparation is desig¬ 
nated in the U. S. Pharmacopoeia is the most correct. It has however, been 
denied that the carbonate of potassa is decomposed by the arsenious acid, 
which is supposed to be merely held in solution ; and, in this view of the nature 
of the preparation the British name Arsenical Solution would be appropriate.” 
40 For non pharmacopoeial names and synonyms, likewise for older pharma¬ 
copoeia! nomenclature see the glossary. 
