<i,pril 6, 1872.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS 
815 
'difficulty should he experienced in bringing about the 
•changes of simplification, such as he had referred to—if 
■opposition should he raised to such alterations as might 
for that purpose he required—he confessed he did not 
see any great practical difficulty or objection which 
would attach to the use of weights where measures were 
mow ordered in the Pharmacopoeia. He was quite aware 
that there would he great opposition to the introduction 
of weighing in the place of measuring in dispensing, hut 
.he did not think the same objection attached to the pre¬ 
paration of substances ordered in the Pharmacopoeia. 
He had hoped that this subject would have been more, 
freely discussed either at their meetings or in the Journal, 
for it was really very important. It was, moreover, a 
.subject which the Pharmacopoeia Committee of the 
Medical Council felt a great amount of interest in. He 
Rad been urged by that committee to endeavour to have 
it brought forward from time to time in this Society, and 
■discussed. It was not felt by the Medical Council that 
they were at all taking measures which were otherwise 
than calculated to further the objects which the advocates 
for the adoption of the metrical system had in view, and 
which would certainly conduce to the general advancement 
of pharmacy. One great point that they had to bear in 
mind in the construction of the Pharmacopoeia, was that 
they should assimilate it as far as possible with Continen¬ 
tal Pharmacopoeias. Whilst the Pharmacopoeia remained 
ss it was—whilst the formulae were constructed as they 
were at present, the greatest possible difficulty would 
still be experienced on the Continent in translating them 
into formulae that could be readily dispensed. So far as 
he had been able to ascertain, he believed the Pharma¬ 
copoeia Committee were not unfavourable to the adop¬ 
tion of the plan he had suggested, with such modi¬ 
fications as might be urged by practical men, and 
that they considered it was the most efficient means 
of enabling medical men to introduce the metrical system 
■of weights and measures. He quite agreed that such a 
change could not be suddenly made—that it could only 
be made by those men who first took it up, bringing 
.it gradually into practice, and enabling others to be¬ 
come more familiar with the system', and more ready 
to adopt it. 
Mr. Williams said it seemed to him that this was a 
part of a great fight going on between the odd-number 
men and the even-number men, and between the whole 
number men and the fraction men. He had a strong 
■opinion that the whole number men who did without frac¬ 
tions were to be preferred to those who indulged in 
more scientific-looking formulae. The great thing to 
aim at was simplicity, and he thought that theoretical 
perfection might be sometimes sacrificed for the sake of 
simplicity. There was one instance of that in the case 
of phosphoric acid; all the other acids were of such a 
strength that they k neutralized an equal quantity of the 
alkali, but to do that they had to use an uneven number 
of grains of phosphorus to produce a solution of phos¬ 
phoric acid. Many medical men had complained that 
they could not tell the strength of this acid. With re¬ 
gard to phosphoric acid, he suggested that there was no 
real necessity for making it of such strength as to neu¬ 
tralize a given weight of alkali, because it was always 
used as a free acid in dispensing, and was never neutra¬ 
lized. With regard to fractional numbers, he could not 
agree with Mr. Wood’s theory at all. He thought 
Professor Redwood’s idea was far preferable, and he 
should be glad to see the suggestion adopted of weigh¬ 
ing all \ingredients in making up preparations for the 
pharmacopoeia. That was the way in which improve¬ 
ments might be effected and good practical results ar¬ 
rived at. 
Mr. Wood in reply said he was afraid that he had not 
succeeded in making his meaning quite clear, for it was 
evident that several of the gentlemen who had spoken 
had not understood what he meant to convey. Professor 
Redwood had proposed that all processes in the pharma¬ 
copoeia should be described in proportional numbers, a 
proposition which seemed to recommend itself for seve¬ 
ral reasons, namely, for its simplicity, and, secondly, be¬ 
cause it afforded to those who were advocates of the 
metrical system an easy method of using a system to 
which they were attached. He (Mr. Wood) did not 
wish in his paper to convey the meaning that propor¬ 
tional numbers would be omitted in certain cases ; on 
the contrary, he fully contemplated that they would be 
inserted in the Pharmacopoeia to every preparation; 
and he also assumed it probable that, in many cases, the 
processes would undergo considerable simplification, so 
that they should have, not only proportional numbers, 
but proportional numbers of a very simple character; 
and anybody who wished to ascertain the strength of a 
preparation would see by the proportional numbers bet¬ 
ter than by any other system what its relative strength 
was. But, assuming that the Pharmacopoeia was writ¬ 
ten in proportional numbers, and looking at it from 
the light of one who had to make preparations, or who 
had to use these proportional numbers, but who was not 
quite prepared to employ exclusively grammes and 
cubic centimetres; who liked to see proportional 
numbers in the Pharmacopoeia because they simply ex¬ 
pressed in the most perfect manner the primary relations 
of the ingredients to each other, but, liking that, 
nevertheless did not wish to buy new weights and 
measures, and to do everything in grain measures or 
cubic centimetres,—how was such a person going to 
translate these proportional numbers into the weights 
and measures he had got about him, and had hither¬ 
to used? It was rather difficult to judge of the po¬ 
sition he should be in in this respect, because Professor 
Redwood had only given them examples of the liquors 
in those preparations where grains were employed. If 
they took the pharmacopoeia, they might divide the pre¬ 
parations into two classes,—into one they might put all 
those preparations in which at present the ounce or 
quarter of an ounce was the lowest term of weight or 
measure used, which class would comprise most of the 
preparations of the Pharmacopoeia. For that class of 
preparations the proportional numbers, simply and ex¬ 
clusively, would perfectly answer the purpose. But 
then there was the other class of preparations to which 
he was referring, where the grain was one of the terms 
of weight, and it was how to treat these preparations in 
which the difficulty consisted. It would necessitate 
their having a new set of measuring-glasses, and putting 
on one side the measuring-glasses graduated into drachms, 
ounces and minims which they were now accustomed to 
use. It appeared to him that that would create a certain 
amount of prejudice, and give rise to objection. It was 
possible to use the measures they had about them, but 
they must make a calculation to do .it. They must, cal¬ 
culate, say, what was the quantity in grains of strychnia 
that they were to take, which would be the 100th part of 
two fluid ounces, and in doing this, they might make a 
mistake. What he therefore proposed was, that in this 
class of preparations they should insert in the Pharma¬ 
copoeia a column standing by the side of the proportional 
numbers, which would show he might take so many 
grains of strychnia and so much spirit to make up the 
strength of the solution. He wished to keep the pro¬ 
portional numbers, but if possible, to remove all obstacles 
from the path of those who might be prejudiced against 
any change, and who would cry out it they were put to 
the inconvenience of obtaining new sets of measuring- 
glasses, and had to learn the use of new terms ot mea¬ 
suring. But there were other things besides liquors. 
There were infusions, tinctures, ointments and things 
of that sort; and he could hardly fancy they would 
like, in making infusions, for instance,_ to employ 
new measuring-glasses, graduated to grain measures, 
and yet he apprehended that would be necessary. 
Professor Redwood had not given them any example 
of the kind of simplification he would effect in these 
