146 
BRITISH PHARMACEUTICAL CONFERENCE. 
the new order of things. It must still however be borne in mind, and this does not 
seem to be generally understood, that many of the formulae and preparations that 
stand so conspicuously before us now, are essentially Scotcli or Irish, and, as such, 
are little more likely to be prescribed in England for a long time to come than they 
have hitherto been. In this respect we are more frightened than hurt, as will be ren¬ 
dered evident to any one who will take the pains to go carefully through the new 
book with the Pharmacopoeias of Edinburgh and Dublin, and putting E. or D. 
against the respective formulae. 
The extensive alterations made in such old and popular remedies as Decoction of 
Aloes, Tincture of Ehubarb, Tincture of Senna, Confection of Senna, Infusions of 
Orange and Gentian, Ipecacuanha Wine, Liq. Ammon. Acetatis, etc. etc., are quite 
incomprehensible, and to many minds very pernicious and needless. The extracts, 
both solid and liquid, have had a large amount of labour bestowed upon them by the 
committee of the Pharmaceutical Society, who spared no pains to render them work 
complete and efficient. Much of their recommendation was adopted, and others 
altered, to meet the views and wishes of the medical profession. Indeed, every por¬ 
tion of the work has been attended with great labour and expense. 
An attempt has evidently been made to render the tinctures more uniform in cha¬ 
racter and strength; but there are some curious inconsistencies, of which Tincture of 
Arnica, now introduced, is an illustration. The preparation is universally known, 
having been brought prominently forward by the homoeopaths, and is made with one 
part of root to ten of rectified spirit; but the new Pharmacopoeia tells us to use one 
in twenty! Why deviate from an established formula F Morphia lozenges, and 
morphia and ipecacuanha lozenges, which for many years have been made to contain 
of a grain, are now to be ^. The change may be safe, but was it needed ? 
On the chemical portion of the work a great amount of skilful labour has been be¬ 
stowed ; still there is room for improvement, and much work is cut out for such mem¬ 
bers of the Conference as are willing to undertake it. 
The alteration of the weights from troy to avoirdupois possesses two great advan¬ 
tages ; first, that all confusion between the two weights is done away with, and se¬ 
condly, in the circumstance of an ounce avoirdupois being just the weight of a fluid 
ounce of water,—but here the advantages end. The ounce of 437'5 grains not being 
divisible without inconvenient fractions, its practical utility is greatly diminished. 
Thus, 4 drm., 30 grs., T \j of an ounce troy, is much more convenient than 5 of a quar¬ 
ter of an ounce av. =27’3. Thus, anything like facile accuracy is almost impossible 
in many cases. The old weights of fractional parts of an ounce troy are ordered to 
be set aside, but their convenience and the facility with which they are used will never 
allow them to go out of use, and, the grain weight being the same, there is no neces- 
ity for it until a true decimal system be adopted. They are simply weights of so 
many grains, whose characters are easily written, and with no greater, perhaps less, 
liability to error than Roman numerals. 
The introduction of the modified process of percolation and maceration in making 
tinctures, etc., is good, and likely to be more generally useful than a strict adhesion to 
simple percolation, which in many hands is difficult, and involves some curious errors 
of manipulation. 
With regard to the omission of old-established formuke for preparations, most of 
which are in constant use and demand, I cannot but express my regret, feeling, as I 
ever have done, that an authorized formula for every established preparation in use, 
w r hether by one section of the medical profession or another, or by the public, and 
whether they have ever been in a pharmacopoeia or not, should form an integral por¬ 
tion of any national pharmacopoeia. These omissions are much to be regretted, and 
are a source of much disappointment and dissatisfaction amongst a large number of 
our professional brethren. 
The omission of doses, as authorized in the translation of the old Latin edition, 
too, is much more serious than the framers of the book are aware of, and may lead to 
disaster, when the dispenser can no longer correct the clerical errors of prescribers by 
some authorized rule or standard. 
However, with all its imperfections, which fall heaviest on England, the new 
British Pharmacopoeia has marked improvements, winch place it far above all its 
