814 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[April G, 1872. 
prescriptions, and had to do with the doses of medicines, 
to insist that they should have some knowledge of the 
system which they were anxious to introduce. If this 
Society went on discussing the merits of the metrical 
system, it would have no effect elsewhere. If anything 
.about the metrical system were mentioned to a medical 
man, he at once raised the difficulty that he did not know 
it, and had no notion of what was a gramme, or of the 
■difference between a gramme and a grain. He did not 
know the volume of a centimetre, or the difference be¬ 
tween a litre and a cubic centimetre. The members of 
this Society know how simple it is to learn and work 
with the metrical system ; and if they were to use their 
influence with the Medical Examining Boards, they 
would better attain the object they had in view than by 
discussing processes which were in themselves important 
•changes. He agreed with the President that any system 
which adapted itself only to one part of the Pharma- 
■copoeia was undesirable. He had formerly expressed 
the opinion, that if such gentlemen as Mr. Wood, for 
instance, would take the pains to 'issue a supplement to 
any existing Pharmacopoeia at any given time, and adapt 
it to the metrical weights and measures, he would do 
more service to the system which he advocated, than by 
proposing any gradual change based on existing systems. 
Mr. Martindale said that he had had some correspon¬ 
dence with Professor Redwood on this subject, but he 
(Mr. Martindale) was hardly prepared to introduce a 
plan at present. He wished to see the metrical system 
fully introduced, with the exception of one part, and 
that was the weighing of liquids. He could not think 
that English pharmacists would submit to weighing- 
liquids in their continual dispensing, especially where 
there was much of it to do. If they could adapt a sys¬ 
tem of liquid measures corresponding to certain definite 
weights of some well-known substance, they might be 
able to have measures in place of those having such un¬ 
couth names as cubic centimetre, centilitre, or milli¬ 
litre. The Paris Codex recognized the measures of 
tea-spoon and table-spoon, which he thought might be 
brought into service in the new system. A tea-spoon 
contained five cubic centimetres of distilled water, which 
would be about 84 minims. They knew that the tea¬ 
spoons and table-spoons of ordinary use were much 
greater than wdiat the words were understood to imply 
medicinally. He thought those terms should be taken 
as a kind of unit of measure for preparing medicines as 
well as for administering them, and he should drop the 
•term “ ful ” at the end of each, and merely say tea-spoon 
■or table-spoon. He believed that this system would meet 
with the approbation of the medical profession much more 
than any vague system that might be adopted. Mr. Car- 
teighe had said that the medical profession were entirely 
ignorant of the metrical system; but that was hardly 
correct at the present time, as the rising generation of 
medical students were made tolerably well acquainted with 
it especially as regarded the teaching of chemistry. Most 
of those that he met with were fairly acquainted with 
the metrical weights. They had an idea of what a 
/gramme was, and what a cubic centimetre was; and he did 
not think there need be so much difficulty in this direc¬ 
tion as Mr. Carteighe seemed to suppose. The great diffi¬ 
culty would be in reconciling the metrical measures 
with any system at present in use in England. He 
.should object very strongly to Mr. Wood’s plan, for 
the reason that he introduced such a quantity of frac¬ 
tions, which would be sure to be neglected where there 
was a great deal of dispensing. He could not conceive 
that these fractions could be practically carried out. 
Mr. Frazer suggested that active agents for internal 
use should be made of equal strength. If the Pharma¬ 
copoeia could enforce this in some way, so that they could 
always be certain of the average strength, it would lessen 
the danger of poisoning. He certainly agreed with Mr. 
■Carteighe that if they were to have a change, it should 
be a radical change. 
Professor Redwood said that, with reference to the 
general object of the proposition which he had made for 
the introduction into the Pharmacopoeia of proportional 
numbers in the place of specified weights and measures, 
it had been assumed by Mr. Carteighe that evening, and 
by others who had either spoken or written on the 
subject, that it was to introduce something as a sort of 
transitional measure—something that was to be only 
temporary, and that was at some subsequent period to 
give way to a new method of expressing quantities to be 
used in the Pharmacopoeia. Now, he did not admit that 
that was his object, or that it could be fairly 
inferred that it was intended as a mere temporary 
measure ; and in confirmation of that he might 
refer to the fact that, in nearly all Continental Pharma¬ 
copoeias, and certainly in the most modern of them, the 
practice of expressing quantities by specified weights 
and measures was entirely omitted, and the proportional 
numbers were used exclusively. He saw no reason why 
that should not be a permanent method of constructing 
formulae ; and the method which had been proposed was 
not, therefore, to be looked upon as merely provisional. 
With reference to the paper before them, he observed 
that Mr. Wood used a term for expressing quantities by 
measure, which certainly appeared to be very unobjec¬ 
tionable, and which he (Professor Redwood) should 
prefer to the one he had himself used in his paper. 
Mr. Wood had used the term “ fluid part” where 
he (Professor Redwood) had used the term “measure;” 
and so far as he could see at present, he quite 
approved of the use of that term. He was not, however, 
prepared to go with Mr. Wood in the proposition he made 
for using specified weights and measures, as well as of 
the terms “part” and “fluid part.” He thought that 
Mr. Wood had rather unnecessarily magnified the diffi¬ 
culty by assuming that which he (Professor Redwood) 
commenced by repudiating,—the retention in all cases of 
the proportions in the Pharmacopoeia that were at present 
used there. He had looked to the simplification of the 
formula; in the Pharmacopoeia as one of the main objects 
to be contemplated by this change. Such simplification 
would be necessitated by the adoption of proportional 
numbers, and they would in that way get rid of a great 
deal of intricacy, which appeared to attach to the method 
which Mr. Wood had suggested. There should be no 
occasion for the use of fractional parts of grains, for 
instance, and there was no reason why proportions should 
be retained precisely as they now stood, necessitating in 
that way those minute fractions ; and, therefore, if they 
were contemplating a simplification in the formulae, of 
the proportions of the ingredient, they should then adjust 
them to such a point as would admit of proportional 
numbers being used. He thought that the preparation 
of the medicines which were ordered in the Pharmacopoeia, 
by the use of proportional numbers, might be greatly 
facilitated and simplified by the increase, to a small 
extent, of a certain class of preparations in the 
Pharmacopoeia, which would be intermediate pre¬ 
parations to be used in the production of other 
preparations; as, for instance, where a minute quantity 
of essential oil is ordered in a preparation which 
contains spirit, if there were a spirituous solution 
of that essential oil of a certain definite strength, 
a quantity of thatwould be sometimes more conveniently 
used than the smaller portion of the essential oil in its 
concentrated state. Many of the cases which had been 
referred to by Mr. Wood would be met by the use of 
preparations of that description. In common with one 
or two of the gentlemen who had spoken, he (Professor 
Redwood) should say most decidedly that the introduc¬ 
tion of proportional numbers, if it took place at all in 
the Pharmacopoeia, should be made to apply to. all the 
preparations alike and equally; that the formula3 should 
all be constructed in a similar manner, and that they 
should be so devised and arranged as to admit of the 
quantities being expressed in that way. If any great 
i 
