THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL. 
SECOND SERIES. 
VOL. IX.—No. XI.—MAY, 1868 . 
THE BRITISH PHARMACOPOEIA. 
The notice which recently emanated from the Medical Council, and to 
which we drew attention last month, has called forth communications between 
dispensers and prescribers of medicine, from which we hope that some benefit 
will result. There is certainly much room, although there ought to be none, 
for mutual explanation, on the subject of the Pharmacopoeia, between those 
engaged directly and indirectly in the administration of medicine. There is 
one legal Pharmacopoeia, which has authority throughout the British Empire, 
and which ought to be exclusively used in preparing the medicines of which 
it treats. It is of the greatest importance, as affecting the health and safety 
of those who require medical treatment, that perfectly intelligible means of 
communication should exist between those who order and those who prepare 
the remedies to be administered, that there should be no ambiguity in the 
terms employed, no doubt with regard to the medicines prescribed. It was 
for the purpose of more fully realizing this, which is one of the principal ob¬ 
jects for which a legally authorized Pharmacopoeia is published, that the 
Medical Council were called upon by the Legislature to prepare the British 
Pharmacopoeia, which was to supersede all other similar works, and “ to 
afford to the members of the Medical Profession, and those engaged in the 
preparation of medicines, one uniform standard and guide, whereby the 
nature and composition of substances to be used in medicine may be ascer¬ 
tained and determined.” The evils, and even danger to life, which previously 
existed, resulting from the use of three different Pharmacopoeias, containing 
conflicting instructions and representations, were admitted, and strongly felt 
by all those who were practically acquainted with the subject; and the removal 
of doubt and ambiguity by the adoption of one Pharmacopoeia was hailed as 
an important improvement in the administration of medicine. It is quite 
obvious, however, that unless the British Pharmacopoeia really supersedes its 
predecessors, and is recognized and adopted as the only legal standard with 
regard to the composition of medicines, the evils which previously existed, 
instead of being removed or diminished, will be increased by adding another 
conflicting authority to those which already caused so much confusion. 
When a new Pharmacopoeia is first introduced it is necessary to allow a 
short time for those whom it directly concerns to make themselves acquainted 
with it, and to ascertain how far, if at all, it differs from that previously in 
use. This was especially the case with reference to the British Pharmaco¬ 
poeia in which three different Pharmacopoeias had to be amalgamated, and 
considering the extent to which different parts of the kingdom have been 
affected by the amalgamat ion, it might have been expected that more than 
usual time and influence would be required to bring about the complete adop¬ 
tion of the new work, and to cause those which it was intended to supersede 
to fall into disuse. But if the difficulties attending the change have been 
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