THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL. 
SECOND SERIES. 
YOL. IX.—No. X.—APRIL, 1868 . 
THE BRITISH PHARMACOPOEIA. 
The Executive Committee of the General Medical Council, in an advertise¬ 
ment which will be found in another part of this Journal, have preferred a very 
serious charge against certain Chemists, who, they say, are still in the habit of 
compounding and dispensing medicines according to the directions and formulae 
contained in the London Pharmacopoeia , instead of recognizing and adopting 
the British Pharmacopoeia of 1867, as the only Pharmacopoeia authorized by law. 
We cannot doubt that sufficient grounds have existed for the statement thus 
made to the disparagement of members of the pharmaceutical body, but we trust 
and believe that cases such as those alluded to are quite exceptional, and that 
the practice complained of has arisen from misconception of the wishes and inten¬ 
tions of medical men, and of the duties of the Chemist in dispensing medicines. 
Nine months have now elapsed since the official publication of the British 
Pharmacopoeia of 1867, and during the whole of this time an earnest desire has 
been generally manifested, alike by Medical men and Chemists, to substitute 
the medicines made according to the authorized formula) of the new Pharma¬ 
copoeia for those previously in use, as speedily and completely as the require¬ 
ments of existing medical practice would admit. 
It could not be expected, on the introduction of a new Pharmacopoeia, that 
medical men should be prepared at once to relinquish the use of preparations 
they have been accustomed to prescribe, and to adopt new or altered prepa¬ 
rations in the use of which they have had no previous experience. The change 
must necessarily to some extent be a gradual one, and this arises more from the 
tardiness of prescribers in adapting their prescriptions to new formulae, than 
from any indisposition on the part of dispensers to make the change thoroughly 
and at once, if required to do so. 
To the Chemist, a change of pharmacopoeias involves a considerable increase 
of labour and expense in carrying on his business, as he is compelled for some time 
to keep two sets of preparations,—the old for use in dispensing from prescrip¬ 
tions written previously to the introduction of the new Pharmacopoeia, and to 
meet the requirements of medical men who still continue to indicate such pre¬ 
parations in their prescriptions, and the new for use in all other cases. The 
change also involves an increase of responsibility, and a constant necessity for 
the exercise of discretion in the interpretation of the instructions given by 
prescribers. The difficulties resulting from these causes, however, only occur 
to any considerable extent when a change of pharmacopoeias is first made, or 
while some hesitation exists among medical men in using the medicines made 
according to the newly authorized processes; but on neither of these grounds 
can any excuse be now urged by Chemists for “ compounding and dispensing 
medicines ” according to the directions and formulae of any other than the 
British Pharmacopoeia of 1867, when no specific instructions are given to that 
effect by the prescriber. 
VOL. ix. 2 G 
