410 
LECTURES ON THE BRITISH PHARMACOPOEIA. 
been made in the more scientific names of these medicines, by which the term 
“ chloride of mercury which has for so long a time been used to designate calo¬ 
mel, is now made to apply to corrosive sublimate. Any change of chemical no¬ 
menclature, as applied to medicines, could hardly have been made at a more 
unsuitable time than the present; for the whole system of chemical nomencla¬ 
ture is just now undergoing revision by scientific chemists, and great and im¬ 
portant changes will, no doubt, shortly be made—indeed, they are now in pro¬ 
gress, and will probably render the new scientific names introduced into the 
British Pharmacopoeia as much behind the requirements of modern science as 
those which have been superseded. It would have been much safer and better 
to have left the old scientific names of the chemical substances used in medicine 
unaltered, excepting where it was thought that such names could be altogether 
dispensed with, as in the cases of calomel and corrosive sublimate. 
4. New Chemical Preparations with Old Names. 
Acidurn aceticum. 
- aceticum dilutum. 
— - hydrochloricum dilutum. 
■- nitricum. 
- nitricum dilutum. 
-sulphuricum. 
Acidurn sulphuricum dilutum. 
Ammonise acetatis liquor. 
Magnesia. 
Magnesise carbonas. 
Morphise hydrochloratis liquor. 
Potassse carbonas. 
These changes are of comparatively little importance, as they only affect the 
strength of the preparations. I shall have by-and-by to refer again to these 
changes of strength ; at present, I merely allude to the effect of retaining the 
names unaltered when the preparations have been changed. As a rule, I should 
be disposed to say, with reference to the preparations used in medicine, that, 
when any important changes are made in the composition or strength of such 
preparations, they should be distinguished from those previously used by some 
change of name. I do not think, however, that this rule could with advantage 
have been applied to any of the preparations in the list before us. If there is 
anything to regret, it is, with reference to some members of the group, that any 
change should have been made in the preparations themselves; the names have 
been rightly left as they were. 
5. Substitutes for Old Chemical Preparations under New Names. 
Pulvis antimonialis for Pulvis antimonii compositus. 
Acetum Gafiicum for Acetum Britannicum. 
Garbo animalis purif., from bone-black, for Carbo animalis, from bullock’s blood. 
In this short list we have an efficient antimonial powder, which can be alwa 3 7 s 
produced in a uniform state, as a substitute for the old, inactive, and uncertain 
Pulvis antimonii compositus. We also have purified animal charcoal from bone- 
black, as a substitute for the charcoal prepared from blood. These changes are 
much to be commended ; but I am not so sure that the substitution of French 
vinegar for British vinegar is a judicious change. I have never found any dif¬ 
ficulty in getting perfectly good British vinegar, but much difficulty in getting 
good French vinegar; nor do I think that the so-called French vinegar met with 
in this country is better in any respect than the best British vinegar. The Phar¬ 
macopoeia says that the vinegar used in medicine is to be “impure dilute acetic 
acid, prepared from French wines by the acetous fermentation.” But I under¬ 
stand that what is generally sold in this country as French vinegar is made in 
this country, and certainly is not made from French wines by the acetous fer¬ 
mentation. This, however, is not an important matter, for it does not appear 
that this vinegar is ordered in any of the preparations in the Pharmacopoeia, 
and for what purpose it is retained at all in the Materia Medica, I am unable 
to conceive. The old class of “ vinegars ” are altogether discarded, and French 
vinegar alone is retained. 
