374 
REVIEW. 
“ It was further resolved to depart from the old Pharmacopoeia routine of furnishing 
a simple list of articles of Materia Medica, with their physical characters and prepara¬ 
tions, and to supply information with regard to their medical properties, therapeutic 
uses, and doses ; to form, in fact, a text hook which might prove useful to the medical 
student, and it was hoped also, though, perhaps, in a minor degree, to the practitioner in 
remote stations where works on Materia Medica are not always available for reference. 
“ In accordance with these views, it was deemed expedient to place under each indi¬ 
vidual drug the preparations of which it formed the active ingredient. By this arrange¬ 
ment it is obvious that the various preparations are presented to view more conveniently 
than if they were inserted in detached portions of the work under the separate headings 
of Infusions, Tinctures, Extracts, and so forth. All difficulties with regard to reference 
are obviated by a carefully-prepared and extensive index. 
“It was also decided to include in the present work all the drugs which are officinal 
in the British Pharmacopoeia. Some of these, which require to be used in the fresh 
state, are, of course, unavailable in India ; others, from readily undergoing decomposi¬ 
tion at high temperatures, are unsuited for use in the tropics. These, together with a 
few minor articles, for which India yields sufficient substitutes, it was first thought 
might safely be omitted without detracting from the utility of the work to the Indian 
practitioner. But it was decided not to omit any of them ; so that the student in India, 
where this work may be adopted as a text-book, will have brought before him, in due 
course, all the articles which are officinal in Great Britain, while the notes appended 
will indicate their value and applicability to Indian practice. 
“In endeavouring to impart an educational character to the Indian Pharmacopoeia, 
the Committee feel that they have taken the surest mode of carrying into effect one of 
the primary objects of the work, namely, the introduction of the indigenous products of 
India into European practice in that country. If they are ever to come into general use 
in hospitals and dispensaries throughout India, it is to the medical colleges and schools 
that we must look in the first instance. It is there that a correct knowledge of them 
should be first instilled ; that the student should become familiarized with the articles 
themselves ; that he should be made acquainted with their physical characters and medi¬ 
cinal properties; and it is there, during the period of student life, that he should be¬ 
come practically instructed in their employment in the treatment of disease. On the 
value of knowledge thus gained it is impossible to place too high an estimate, familiariz¬ 
ing, as it will, the embryo practitioner with remedies which are at hand in the remotest 
corners of our Indian empire, rendering him, in a great measure, independent of costly 
imported articles, and effecting a considerable annual saving to the State.” 
From the above extracts, it will be seen that the Pharmacopoeia of India 
has more extended objects than the British Pharmacopoeia, or of the pharma¬ 
copoeias generally of Europe and America, for it is not only a pharmacopoeia in 
the ordinary sense of the term, but is besides a treatise on Materia Medica and 
Therapeutics. Such to some extent was the scope of the Bengal Pharmacopoeia, 
published twenty- four years ago, so that the plan of the present work is not with¬ 
out precedent in India. It is, moreover, we believe, the best arrangement, under 
all circumstances, for a pharmacopoeia of our Indian empire, where works on 
Materia Medica are in some parts difficult to procure for reference. In carry¬ 
ing out this plan, however, we think the editor has been frequently unneces¬ 
sarily minute in details, and has weakened the value of the volume by compris¬ 
ing in its pages the description of a number of drugs which are very unim¬ 
portant, and of some even which, so far as experience of their use has hitherto 
shown, are entirely valueless. These remarks are, of course, intended to 
refer more especially to the non-officinal substances, but they also apply, 
to some extent, even to the officinal ones. We are not among those who would 
restrict too much the Materia Medica of a pharmacopoeia, but, at the same time, 
we must avoid the greater mistake of over-burdening it with a number of untried 
or unimportant remedies as we think has been the case in the present volume. 
The authors of the Pharmacopoeia of India have also, in our opinion, given 
quite insufficient reasons for introducing into it all the drugs of the British. 
Pharmacopoeia, although most undoubtedly the more important which could be 
