ON THE GALENICAL PROCESSES AND PREPARATIONS. 
465 
jury to mankind from the introduction of suck mineral poisons into tke hu¬ 
man system; while, on the other hand, Paracelsus and his followers com¬ 
plained of the superstitious prejudices of those who confined their practice to 
the use of absurd and often disgusting compounds of animal and vegetable 
substances, to which were ascribed marvellous powers in counteracting the 
elfects not only of natural diseases but of every kind of poison. 
Speaking ot the Galenical doctors, Basil Valentine says, “they write long 
scrolls of prescriptions, and the apothecary thumps their medicines in his 
mortar, and health out of the patient.” And again he says, “ Oh, if foolish 
and vain men would hear and understand what I write, they would not suck 
their turbid and insalubrious potions, but hasten to these limpid fountains, 
and drink of the well of life.” 
But Valentine, Paracelsus, and their followers were not allowed to have it 
all their own way. The Galenists long maintained the ascendant, and laws 
were even passed to prohibit the use of some of the more important mineral 
medicines. Thus, in 1566, a decree of the Parliament of Paris was issued 
against the use of antimony, and in 1609, an eminent Paris physician, Paul- 
mier, was expelled from the faculty for having administered this medicine. 
But a change of opinion afterwards took place, and antimonial wine was ad¬ 
mitted into the ‘ Antidotarium,’ published in 1637. Antimony was much em¬ 
ployed about the middle of the seventeenth century, although many medical 
men still considered it a poison and strongly condemned its use. At length 
the doctors assembled at Paris, in March, 1666, to the number of 102, to de¬ 
cide upon the merits of antimony, and a majority of 92 voted in its favour, 
upon which its use was authorized by Parliament. 
Bor the first century or so after the introduction of chemical remedies they 
were not generally admitted into orthodox Dispensatories, and there was a 
distinct class of men, Chemists, by whom they were prepared; but in process 
of time, as the prejudice against this class of medicines gave way to more en¬ 
lightened opinions, chemical and Galenical were no longer separated or dis¬ 
tinguished, excepting by those who could discriminate between more or less 
definitely constituted bodies. In this country, the Pharmacopoeias have from the 
commencement contained both classes of medicines ; although the number of 
chemical remedies was at first small, and has been gradually augmented, 
while the number of animal and vegetable medicines has at the same time 
been gradually curtailed. The chemical products and processes of the London 
Pharmacopoeia were thoroughly revised and reformed in the edition of 1788, 
when this part of the work was put into a form which did great credit to 
those who were engaged in its preparation. 
At a still earlier period, namely, in 1746, a completely radical change was 
made in the Galenical preparations. The arrangement of the Pharmacopoeia 
was then entirely recast, nearly all the old prolix formulae which previously 
filled the work were rejected, and those which were substituted for them may 
be said to have originated and formed the bases of the Galenical medicines 
which have been employed in this country from that day to the present. 
It is with the Galenical preparations, and the processes for their production 
as contained in the British Pharmacopoeia, that I have now to deal. In treat¬ 
ing of these, as I have already treated of the chemical preparations and pro¬ 
cesses, I shall endeavour, by means of tables, to represent the changes which 
have been made by the transition from the London Pharmacopoeia. In the 
first column, under what may be called the generic names of the preparations, 
the numbers of species contained in the London and in the British Pharma¬ 
copoeia are represented, and in the same column are also given any changes 
of name that may have been made. Then in subsequent columns will be 
found the preparations that have been omitted, or added, or altered. You 
