THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL. 
SECOND SERIES. 
VOL. V.—No. VIII.—FEBRUARY 1st, 1864. 
THE BRITISH PHARMACOPOEIA. 
This long-looked-for work has at last appeared, and will, no doubt, be in the 
hands of many of our readers before this notice is read ; for although, at the 
present moment, the supply of the work is very inadequate to the demand,— 
some of our friends being anxiously seeking in vain for copies,—yet this re¬ 
stricted issue will of course be of short duration, and in a few days or weeks the 
‘ British Pharmacopoeia ’ of 1864 will supersede its predecessors, and take its place 
in the medical and pharmaceutical establishments throughout the country. No 
Pharmacopoeia, probably, has ever been looked for with so much interest as 
this, or with such various anticipations of the extent to which it will fulfil the 
requirements of the profession, and contribute to place the practice of British 
pharmacy in the advanced position it ought to occupy. 
Of the two forms in which the work is to appear, the larger, or octavo volume, 
is that alone which is at present being published. It is a book of 444 pages, 
and its appearance is decidedly in its favour ; it is well printed, in clear, 
distinct, and appropriate type, and on good paper. With the exception of the 
names of medicines, both simple and compouud, which, in the headings to the 
several articles, are given in Latin as well as English, the whole of the work 
is in English ; and this is the first time an English Pharmacopoeia has emanated 
from the London College of Physicians, although the Edinburgh and Dublin 
Pharmacopoeias have previously appeared in that language. The Latin names 
are given for the use of prescribes, as there are special reasons for continuing 
the use of such rather than English names in medical prescriptions, but all the 
information given with reference to the substances named, is expressed in the 
language best known to those for whose use the book is intended. 
A Pharmacopoeia is a medium of communication between the prescribes and 
dispensers of medicines, an authorized exponent of the value and meaning of 
the terms employed in extemporaneous prescriptions. The physician describes 
here the medicines he proposes to use in the treatment of disease, and the de¬ 
scription should be such as clearly to define every drug and medicine referred to, 
w r itli such instructions as will enable those to whom the preparation of medi¬ 
cines is entrusted to provide the prescribed remedies in the state in which they 
are intended to be used. The ‘ Pharmacopoeia’ is a work of constant reference 
by medical prescribers and pharmaceutical manufacturers and dispensers; it 
has to be daily used by thousands of men of different capacities and qualifica¬ 
tions, ranging from the learned physician to the half-educated druggist’s ap¬ 
prentice, or laboratory assistant, and upon the right interpretation of its 
instructions, or the accomplishment of its objects, may often depend the issue 
vol. v. 2 a 
