ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF A PHARMACOPCEIA. 
99 
in prescriptions, which neither Csesar nor Virgil would call to remembrance half 
as well. . . - 
I viewed the translating of the Pharmacopoeia as cementing the classical part 
of the pharmaceutist s education in the same proportion that Materia Medica 
and Botany cement and complete the education of the pharmacologist, and as 
Practical Chemistry completes that of the chemist. 
As regards the classification of the contents of a Pharmacopoeia, the separa¬ 
tion of that portion designated Materia Medica from the preparations and com¬ 
pounds, appears to me to be the most desirable arrangement. If the construc¬ 
tion of a work upon Materia Medica, or the Natural History of Drugs, were the 
one under consideration, then I should say, first place the article, and let all 110 
information pertaining thereto, of whatever kind,follow 5 but it is a Pharmacopoeia 
which is under notice,—a book, I imagine, originally designed, not to give an 
account of drugs and chemicals, but to place in the hands of the public and 
private venders and dispensers of medicines certain forms of preparations which 
should be thoroughly understood and recognized by all prescribers and dispensers, 
so that the sick might be able to obtain, at all times and in all places, the same 
preparations of certain drugs. To my mind, it is clear that a I harmacopoeia 
has more reference to preparations than to the crude drug ; but at the same 
time, that no mistake might occur as to the nature and qualities of drugs and 
chemicals from which preparations are to be made, a Materia Medica descriptive 
as far as necessary of those drugs, etc., has generally been added ; but the pre¬ 
parations seem to be the most important, therefore I would not confuse them by 
placing them after the substance, and forming one part with the Materia Medica. 
On the contrary, I would follow the plan of the British Pharmacopoeia, and 
former pharmacopoeias; prescribers and dispensers are alike accustomed to this 
arrangement, and I have failed to discover any good at all equivalent to the in¬ 
convenience of departing from it; the Materia Medica of the British Pharma¬ 
copoeia, whatever failings may exist, is a decided improvement upon that of 
former Pharmacopoeias, and those who desire to study that portion will find 
much useful information, opening fields for wider and further researches. But I 
take it that a medical man, when prescribing, has made up his mind in the first 
place as to the disease, then whether his remedy is to be internal or external, or 
a combination of both ; should he require an external preparation, m the shape 
of liniment, ointment, etc., the Pharmacopoeia gives under the head of each, 
various preparations ; and he uses them as they are, or adds thereto, according 
to circumstances ; and so if he desires to give a pill, either aperient, opiate, 
antiperiodic, or tonic, by turning to the pills he can at once select any ; so he 
may make choice of tinctures, infusions, decoctions, confections, powders, etc. 
It appears more convenient to have a choice of preparations, rather than all the 
preparations of one particular drug, before the prescriber ; and so I for one, 
believe in an arrangement which keeps the Materia Medica separate from the 
Preparations and Compounds, and would confine the Materia Medica as much 
as possible to the description of drugs, and not preparations ; and in the re¬ 
parations and Compounds would give the best known form in full use, leaving 
it to those engaged in large manufactures to produce in their own way, it ii 
better one, a similar or superior article, possessing the same constituents ; and 
I would arrange the work alphabetically, as now. 
In the Materia Medica portion I would refrain from adding the various pre¬ 
parations into which each substance enters, as experience has taught me that 
the addition of them would materially increase the labour of producing the work, 
and very much enlarge it without a corresponding advantage ; take, for instance, 
aloes,_there are no less than nine Pharmacopoeia forms for pills into which it 
enters, besides the tincture, decoction, and enema ; again, soap is an ingredient 
in seven pills, besides other preparations. Where could be the good of enume- 
