December 14,1872.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
469 
%k JJjranttaxfutol Irani al. 
-*-. 
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 14 , 1872 . 
Communications for this Journal, and books for review,etc., 
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Street , London , W. Envelopes indorsed u Bharm. Journ.” 
UNIVERSAL PHARMACOPOEIA. 
The discussion, recently reported in this Journal, 
relating to the proposed Universal Pharmacopoeia, 
has left undetermined several questions that were 
then raised, or that naturally suggest themselves 
on reflection. The principal object contemplated 
in the proposition made at the International 
Pharmaceutical Congress was the assimilation 
in strength and composition of all important me¬ 
dicines used in different countries. This is a result 
that can only be obtained by slow degrees, after 
the collection of much varied information, and 
Anally through the intervention of those officially 
connected with the governing bodies having control 
over the issuing of authorized pharmacopoeias. 
The first thing to be aimed at is the attainment 
of the requisite information. It is necessary 
to direct the attention of medical men and pharma¬ 
cists to existing differences, often important, in 
medicines having the same or similar names. Arising 
from this cause much difficulty and even danger 
sometimes attends the dispensing of medicines for 
travellers in foreign countries. If all medicines 
having similar names were similarly composed, this 
difficulty would be removed. But how is such an 
assimilation to be effected ? It is not the mere pub¬ 
lication of the formulte of different pharmaco¬ 
poeias, nor the placing of such formulae hi juxtaposi¬ 
tion, that would accomplish what is required. The 
habits and prejudices prevailing in different localities 
must be overcome, and this, not by the exercise of 
authority, but by an appeal to facts and arguments. 
When several forms are adopted in different places 
for the administration of the same medicine, ques¬ 
tions will arise as to the necessity for these differ- 
<. ences ; and if such necessity, or some sufficient ad¬ 
vantage to justify an exception, cannot be shown to 
exist, then which of the several formulas should be 
adopted to the exclusion of the others ? These ques¬ 
tions can only be settled after opinions have been 
freely expressed by all parties interested. The 
book proposed to be issued by the Societe de 
Pharmacie of Paris, and referred to at the Vienna 
meeting, had for its object the eliciting of this kind 
of information, and w'as perfectly distinct and dif¬ 
ferent in its design from the work described by Dr. 
Thudichum as that projected by Dr. Phoebus and 
other eminent medical and pharmaceutical authori¬ 
ties, including himself. * 
Then again, the book referred to at Vienna, itself 
emanating from a pharmaceutical corporation, was 
to be sent to other associations of a similar descrip¬ 
tion, to be used by them at their discretion for fur¬ 
thering the object in view, but not with a view to its 
sale for profit, or its use for the ordinary purposes 
of a pharmacopoeia. 
The question of pharmaceutical nomenclature is 
one of considerable importance in connection with 
the attainment of the desired object. If it is pro¬ 
posed to assimilate the composition of medicines 
used in different countries, the names applied to 
them should be assimilated also; and then comes 
the question, in what language should these names 
be expressed, and further, in what language should 
the work as a whole be composed. In most coun¬ 
tries Latin is the language of prescriptions, if not 
wholly, at least as far as relates to the names of 
medicines, and prescribers and dispensers in every 
country are supposed to have a knowledge of Latin. 
This is obviously, therefore, the language most suit¬ 
able for a universal pharmacopoeia. 
There is also the question of weights and mea¬ 
sures, or other means of representing the relative 
quantities of the ingredients entering into compound 
medicines, which will have to be determined before 
the Pharmacopoeia is finally prepared. 
Some of these questions were asked with reference 
to the work described by Dr. Thudichum ; but the 
doctor’s remarks, although conveying much valuable 
information, did not refer to these points. What 
we learn from his statement is, that a societv con- 
sisting at first of eight members, with Dr. Phoebus 
at its head, and called the “ Pliarmaconomical So¬ 
ciety,” has undertaken the production of a Universal 
Pharmacopoeia, which is to comprise a description of 
European medicines, good, bad, and indifferent, 
and that these are to e classified according to their 
merits by the size liaracter of the type used in de¬ 
scribing them, important medicines being in large 
type, then medicines of less importance in smaller 
type, and lastly, worthless medicines, which, in the 
opinion of the authors ought to be discarded, in the 
smallest type. 
With the exception of the proposed classification 
by means of different types, we presume this work 
would not materially differ from Hager’s “ Pharma- 
cop cece Recentiores Anglica, Gallica, Germanics, Hel¬ 
vetica, Russia;, inter se collates It might, no doubt, 
be a valuable addition to pharmaceutical literature ; 
but from the description given, we fail to discover 
in it the essential features of such a work as the 
International Congress evidently contemplated. 
