NOTES ON THE PHARMACOPOEIA. 
23 
cleaner plaster, and if they were to get any effect from opium or belladonna- 
plaster they would get it in the same way. There was another preparation to 
which he should like to draw attention, though it was one that was not much 
used, and that was purified ox-gall. The process, according to the Pharma¬ 
copoeia, was to mix two pints of rectified spirits with one pint of fresh ox-bile. 
Now it depended a great deal upon the condition of the bile whether they re¬ 
quired two pints of spirits, and why should they employ more than was neces¬ 
sary? He felt satisfied, from experiments he had made, that if they were to 
strain the gall and evaporate it down at once, and then just use as much spirit 
as would dissolve out all that was soluble in the spirit, throw the rest away, and 
distil off the spirit, evaporating the remainder, they would get an extract quite 
as good, with less waste of spirit. 
Mr. Hills remarked that his experience differed from that of Mr. Bland, 
with respect to medical men not following the directions of the new Pharma¬ 
copoeia. He had found that those who prescribed according to the old Phar¬ 
macopoeia were the exception. 
Mr. Tupiiolme corroborated the remarks of Mr. Bland, and said that many 
physicians still prescribed by the old Pharmacopoeia. 
The Chairman could hardly suppose that the debate on this very important 
subject would be concluded that evening, and therefore, perhaps, Dr. Redwood 
would reply to the various points that had been brought forward, so as to clear 
up the discussion as they proceeded. 
Dr. Redwood said that a great number of subjects had been brought for¬ 
ward on this and the previous occasion, upon some of which he was quite pre¬ 
pared to offer remarks, whilst with reference to others he should be glad of an 
opportunity to arrange his ideas before offering them to the Society. Having, 
therefore, been called upon by the President, and as it might conduce to the 
further discussion of this subject, if it should be thought desirable to adjourn 
the discussion again, he would, with permission of the meeting, just pass in 
review some of the points which had been brought forward, as far as he could 
recall them. At the last meeting the discussion principally turned upon some 
four or five preparations of the Pharmacopoeia. Linimentum potassii iodidi cum 
sapone had been a prolific subject for comment by those who had been practi¬ 
cally called upon to prepare it. He had felt for some time past that the in¬ 
structions given in the Pharmacopoeia were not sufficient to ensure uniform re¬ 
sults in the preparation of this liniment. It was a new preparation, and dis¬ 
pensers were left to make it up, to some extent, according to their own individual 
judgment, yet it had been found that by varying the conditions, even if the 
ingredients were the same, the results materially differed in appearance. He 
thought that Mr. Martindale had thrown out a proposition which was worthy 
of consideration,—namely, that in order to get a uniform and generally pretty 
satisfactory result, the solutions, when mixed, should be both at the same tem¬ 
perature, and that not the ordinary temperature of the air, but considerably 
warmer. So far as he had been able to judge, that appeared to be the best 
method of getting a tolerably uniform, and perhaps the most satisfactory result 
that they could obtain with the present formula. But when a new Pharma¬ 
copoeia came out, he felt assured that the formula would be very materially 
modified. As he had stated on a former occasion, it was introduced into the 
Pharmacopoeia at the suggestion of a member of the medical profession, who 
had been for many years accustomed to prescribe it, and who valued it greatly. 
It had been long prepared by a pharmaceutist from whom the process, as it ap¬ 
peared in the Pharmacopoeia, was obtained. Another of the preparations that was 
brought under their notice at the last meeting was the liquor magnesise carbo- 
natis. He thought he might say that the general feeling seemed to be in favour 
of the proposition that he threw out, that the strength of that preparation should 
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