418 
LECTURES ON TIIE BRITISH FIIARM ACOPCE1A. 
The above extract from the preface will show that the materia medica of the 
British Pharmacopoeia forms a very important portion of that volume. Altogether 
it is comprised in one hundred and fifty-seven pages, or in but seventy-seven pages 
less than the part treating of the preparations and compounds. This is, at least, 
three times the space which has hitherto been devoted to the materia medica in 
any British Pharmacopoeia. The object of this more detailed account has 
evidently been to provide an epitome of the subject, which should comprise 
everything that was most essential to be known, as well as to form a founda¬ 
tion for future studies. The increased importance given to the materia medica 
in the present Pharmacopoeia we regard as a great improvement and material 
advance over the plan pursued in preceding Pharmacopoeias, and one which we 
feel sure will be duly appreciated. 
Although thus cordially welcoming this improvement in the materia medica, 
there is, we think, one great omission which will mar its usefulness, that is, the 
complete absence of any reference to the doses of the crude drugs and their 
different preparations. Some account of the doses of the various substances was 
more especially called for in a work which introduces to our notice many new, 
and, in some cases, but comparatively little known and powerful drugs, and in 
which numerous old and familiar preparations have been altered materially in 
strength. We trust to see this omission rectified in a future issue, so that the 
Pharmacopoeia may contain in itself all that prescribers and dispensers are 
absolutely required to know. We should also like to see more care taken in 
succeeding editions in enumerating the different preparations of each article of 
the materia medica, for in the present Pharmacopoeia there are many important 
ones omitted. It should be especially noticed, however, that those preparations 
only were intended to be enumerated, in which each article of the materia 
medica enters as an active ingredient. 
There is one result which I cannot forbear alluding to, and which will, I fear, 
to some extent be brought about by this enlargement of the materia medica, 
and that is, its use by students as a multum in parvo , a kind of “ cram. 17 I 
sincerely hope that such may not be the case, for if so, it will be a great evil ; 
for important and useful as the short notices of the materia medica are, they can 
only serve as a foundation for further studies, or, as an abstract of what is es¬ 
sential for future use. He would, indeed, possess but a superficial knowledge 
who would refuse to proceed further than the Pharmacopoeia taught him of ma¬ 
teria medica, and, to such a student, a large amount of most important and in¬ 
teresting matter would be entirely unknown. 
In the February number of the Pharmaceutical Journal, in an article enti¬ 
tled, “ Explanatory and Critical Notes on the British Pharmacopoeia,” I have 
given several tables, for the purpose of showing the great changes which the 
organic materia medica of the British Pharmacopoeia presents when compared 
with that of the last editions of the London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Pharmaco¬ 
poeias. From these tables it appears that no less than eighty-two organic sub¬ 
stances formerly included in the British Pharmacopoeias, and fifty-two plants 
and animals, have been altogether excluded from the present British Pharma¬ 
copoeia. Of these excluded substances, sixty-six were formerly officinal in the 
Edinburgh Pharmacopoeia, forty-three in the London, and thirty-three in the 
Dublin; hence,in this respect,the British Pharmacopoeia presents fewer changes 
from the Dublin than from the London and Edinburgh. The great majority 
of organic substances excluded from the Edinburgh Pharmacopoeia is doubt¬ 
less due to the long period which has elapsed since a new Pharmacopoeia was 
issued by the Edinburgh College of Physicians. 
Other tables have been given in the same article, which show that but twenty - 
three new organic substances have been introduced into the materia medica and 
appendices of the British Pharmacopoeia. 
