SOLUTIONS OF IODINE AND OTHER PREPARATIONS. 
605 
Posology .—Are the doses given meant for the guidance of the dispenser as well 
as the prescriber? If so, is a dispenser justified in refusing to compound 
prescriptions ordering medicines in larger doses? It is desirable to give the 
smallest dose of a medicine that will have the required effect, still the maximum 
doses stated are frequently much too small. For example, the dose of gallic 
acid is given, as 2 to 10 grains. I have not dispensed a less dose than 10 grains 
for years, and at times as much as 60-grain doses for albuminuria. Of extrac- 
tum filicis liquidum, the dose given is 15 to 30 minims ; I more frequently dis¬ 
pense 60 minims for a dose. Tinctura ferri perchloridi, 10 to 30 minims, it is 
given in 60-minim doses. Potassii iodidum, 2 to 10 grains, often 30-grain 
doses are administered. 
The effect of this is often mischievous, as in the following instance. A few 
years ago, before the present Pharmacopoeia was published, and when bromide 
of potassium was coming into use as a remedy for epilepsy, a physician wrote a 
prescription for a case ordering 20 grains in a mixture,' to be taken three times 
a day. The patient took it to a chemist, who refused to dispense it, and neg¬ 
lecting the tact he ought to have shown, he sent the patient back to the phy¬ 
sician to ask him if there was not some mistake. It afterwards came to an 
establishment with which I was then connected, and was dispensed without 
the least hesitation, as it had become with us an every-day prescription. 
If the doses of the preparations must be stated, there ought to be three given, 
—the minimum, the maximum, and the poisonous dose,—to avoid the possibility 
of cases of this kind occurring. 
In conclusion, I think the subject is so broad, that before another edition of 
the Pharmacopoeia is published, the formulse and preparations should be dis¬ 
cussed here seriatim, like the clauses of a bill before a Committee of the House 
of Commons. Those that are good would meet with our approval, those that 
are capable of it would be amended, and those that are bad, or obsolete, would 
be condemned, as they only cumber the ground of the Pharmacopoeia, our phar¬ 
macies, and the medical student’s mental capacity. From my point of view, it 
may be that I am connected with a medical school of whose professors the un¬ 
just remark has been made, “ they have no faith in medicine,” but by the perform¬ 
ance of my duties, I am able to take a wide survey of this subject, and I am 
convinced that much of it has either become obsolete, or is fast becoming so. 
Who, in the medical profession believes in the efficacy per se of such medicines 
as, thus, castor, expressed oil of mace, hops, myrrh, saffron, red sandal-wood, 
etc. ? They enter into the composition of different compound formulae, with very 
questionable advantage,—often to complicate them unnecessarily, and to obscure 
the effect of their action. Some things are almost too sacred for discussion. 
Among these are the Pharmacopoeia, and, I should have thought, that bulwark 
of English liberty, trial by jury ; yet I attended a debate the other evening at 
which youths in their teens, with all the assurance of a prime minister, con¬ 
demned even this. Infallibility has been so much discussed of late, that to apply 
such a term to the Pharmacopoeia would be more presumptuous than to the Pope, 
or a British sovereign, who, according to our constitution, can do no wrong. 
As a register of the strength of preparations, the Pharmacopoeia i3 a necessity, 
and whatever deviation we may make in manipulation, we should ever be loyal 
in this respect. 
We must not use a microscopic eye to search for little imperfections in it, but 
we may suggest improvements, which in the routine of our daily occupation ex¬ 
perience has taught us are necessary. The present Pharmacopoeia I consider i3 
a marvel of correctness for such a work, taking into account the arduous task 
Dr. Redwood had in overcoming the prejudice each of the three kingdoms had 
formed against the previous edition. In this he has been eminently successful, 
which is some reward for his labours. I have to thank him for much informa- 
