826 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[April 15,1871. 
Resume .—Tlie chief alterations in pharmacopoeial 
nomenclature now proposed amount to this, that the 
compounds of the alkali-metals and alkaline-earth- 
metals instead of being named as hitherto on two 
distinct systems, should follow hut onethat instead 
of salts of potassium and of potash we should have 
salts of potassium only; instead of sodium and soda 
compounds, sodium only; and so with preparations 
of ammonium, lithium, calcium, magnesium and alu¬ 
minium. This is a step in the direction of sim¬ 
plicity and permanency, and away from that of 
theory. 
Synonyms .—Modern scientific chemical names, 
and the old dualistic names should, I think, he in¬ 
cluded as synonyms of the leading names in all 
Pharmacopoeias. Many might he mentioned in ad¬ 
dition to those in the third column : I have given a 
selection because the complete and consistent sets 
(for, unfortunately, there are more than one) would 
have occupied too much space. 
Exceptional Alterations .— Constitutional objec¬ 
tions to the name acidum arseniosum would he ob- 
siated by the old name arsenicum album. Some 
other bodies, apparently similar in constitution to 
white arsenic, are alluded to in the text of the British 
Pharmacopoeia as anhydrous acids —a most ambigu¬ 
ous and self-contradictory term; for the bodies in 
question either are acids or they are not acids; 
whereas the term indicates that they are both—which 
is impossible. The not veiy satisfactory word “ an¬ 
hydride” is coming generally into use for these bodies, 
and this might be employed officially; but all ob¬ 
jection would be avoided if the strength of the pliar- 
macopceial acids, which are mostly aqueous solutions 
of acids, were solely given in terms of real acid (the 
hydrogen salt). The correlative of the word anhy¬ 
drous, I would suggest, should be hydrous , never 
hydrate ; especially as the latter word is now given 
to the members of a class of bodies derived from 
water, as hydrate of potassium, and not to bodies 
containing water. The compound from which anhy¬ 
drous sulphate of copper is prepared is hydrous sul- 
phate of copper, not hydrated sulphate of copper. In 
view of the peculiar composition of bichromate of 
potassium the first word of its name is most unsuitable, 
and would be advantageously replaced by red chro¬ 
mate, a name which would usefully distinguish the 
salt from yellow chromate of potassium. The names 
of the bismuth powders are not at present consistent 
witn each other; if the one be termed subnitrate the 
other should be subcarbonate, not “ carbonate .” But 
these preparations and the similar compounds of 
copper and lead are normal rather than “ sub” salts, 
containing oxygen in the place of an exactly equiva¬ 
lent quantity of the acidulous radical of the neutral 
salts, and might well be termed respectively oxycar- 
tonate oj bismuth, oxynitrate of bismuth, oxycicetate 
<>j capper, oxyacetate oj lead ; at all events the latter 
names would do good service as synonyms. Similar 
remarks apply to the peroxhydrat.es of iron. The 
pi efix sub is most usefully and indeed indispens¬ 
ably applied m the case of calomel, which is the 
lower or under-chbride of mercury: it would be 
well if the meaning of the syllable could be always 
nus lestncted to its etymological signification, and 
never again used in its old conventional sense. The 
names tartarated antimony, tartarated iron, tarta- 
rated sodium, I do not like at all. The sister terms 
sulphurated antimony and sulphurated potash are 
most happy, their utter vagueness fairly representing 
the nondescript character of the preparations. But 
tartrate (or oxytartrate) of antimony and potassium, 
tartrate of iron and potassium, and tartrate of sodium 
and potassium, are at least as definite in composi¬ 
tion as the citric trio which are already honoured 
with the definite names (or, rather, with the old 
forms of the names) citrate of bismuth and ammo¬ 
nium, citrate of iron and ammonium and citrate of 
iron and quinia. “ Prussiates” might now, I think, 
be relegated to the synonymic category. Instead of 
Liquor Soda Effervescens, B. P., which might pos¬ 
sibly be confounded with Liquor Soda, I would 
prefer Aqua Soda Ef'ervescens, and so with Potash 
Water. These are the prominent exceptional alte¬ 
rations to which I would draw attention. Then* 
acceptance is not insisted on, nor is the list exhaus¬ 
tive. Allusion is made to them in the hope that 
discussion may show which names, on the whole, 
possess the greatest number of advantages. The 
alterations. I do urge are those considered in the 
main portion of this paper, those of which I have 
already given a resume. 
In conclusion, I would state that the Lavoisierian 
names now proposed for use in medicine and phar¬ 
macy have already been freely adopted by many au¬ 
thors, and used as the leading nomenclature of my 
own and some other Manuals of Chemistry. I com¬ 
mend them to the medical practitioners and pharma¬ 
cists of Europe, America and the Colonies. 
THE 
PROPOSED POISON REGULATIONS. 
MEETING AT GLASGOW. 
A Special General Meeting of the chemists of Glasgow 
and West of Scotland (convened by the officers of the 
Glasgow Association) was held in the West Hall, Ander¬ 
son’s University, on Monday, 3rd inst., at 12 o’clock 
noon.. Mr. Thomas Davison, President of the Glasgow 
Association, was called upon to preside. 
The Chairman read the circular calling the meeting, 
and the proposed regulations. These, he thought, suffi¬ 
ciently explained the object for which they were met, 
while the resolutions to be proposed, if adopted unani¬ 
mously, would be regarded as expressive of the opinion 
of the chemists of this important district. He would 
have preferred that some person who could have main¬ 
tained a more neutral attitude should have been appointed 
chairman of this meeting, as he felt that the result might 
be looked upon as a foregone conclusion. The proposed 
regulations were put forth for the avowed object of 
securing the safety of the public, but if so, he could 
not see why surgeon-druggists should be exempted, 
and more especially in Glasgow and Paisley, where medi¬ 
cal practitioners had by far the largest share of dis¬ 
pensing. He contended that in Scotland generally there 
were lew cases of poisoning from carelessness on the 
part of chemists, and even in England thev were com¬ 
paratively few. He therefore thought there was no 
necessity for the safety of the public being guaranteed 
by any such regulations as those proposed. He further 
thought it .was quite clear that if the chemists accepted 
the regulations, they would be continually interfered with. 
If the Pharmacy Act of 1868 had been adopted in its en¬ 
tirety, the result would have been that all surgeons who 
kept open shop would have had to get themselves re¬ 
gistered under the Act as chemists and druggists; they 
then would have been liable to the same restrictions. But 
the Amended Act of 1869, he believed, was intended for 
no other purpose than to have medical practitioners en¬ 
tirely exempted from the operations of the Act of 1868, 
