578 
PHAUMACEUTICAL MEETING. 
will be still furtlier commented upon by those more calculated to do it justice. 
Nevertheless, some simple and homely thoughts may suggest themselves to the 
less qualified and scientific writer, which might be passed over by the more 
highly gifted, and yet which may be equally acceptable to a large number of 
pharmaceutists; and, apart from this, the Codex is a large work, there are many 
fields in it, and abundant room for many and varied workmen. Under this 
conviction I began the task of looking through the Codex and comparing it 
with our own Pharmacopoeia of IS'Gd; and here let me observe, that I come 
before you not as a professor, but simply as one of yourselves—a working phar¬ 
maceutist, one of the numerous bees pertaining to a large hive, and I ask you 
to extend to me now, as upon former occasions, your patience and indulgence. 
I feel that I have undertaken a work of no small labour and masrnitude, and 
in one communication know it to be impossible to go fully into the subject. It 
is true, I might tell you that the Codex proper, after the Preface, is divided 
into Preliminary Remarks, Materia IMedica, and the Pharmacopoeia, or Prepa¬ 
rations and Compounds; that the Materia Medica contains upwards of six hun¬ 
dred substances, derived from the vegetable and animal kingdoms, besides those 
from the mineral. I might tell you the chemistry of the work is excellent; that 
the ordinary name is given in French, and to us at least a new name in Latin, 
—for example, Bicarbonate de Soude, Bicarbonate of Soda, is Bicarbonas Sodi- 
cus, Sodic Bicarbonate; that the preparations of every kind are abundant, not 
only in number, but in the multiplicity of ingredients which enter into the com¬ 
position of some of them ; that the whole is wound up with a copy of the laws 
regulating the practice of pharmacy, and the education of pharmaceutists; and 
that there is an excellent index in Latin, also one in French ; but this wmuld 
give you a very imperfect idea of the work, not a single thought of my own, 
nor would it be calculated to elicit any from others. What I desire to do 
is this, having touched lightly upon the Report and Preface, to take each part 
separately, point out any difference I may think worthy of notice between the 
Codex and the P. B., make my own remarks, and leave you to fill up the in¬ 
terstices. And now to the work. 
The first few pages contain a report to his Majesty the Emperor, setting 
forth that, by the.wisdom of the law which regulates the practice of pharmacy 
in France, an official formulary published with the sanction and by the orders 
of the Government, contains all the medicinal and pharmaceutical preparations 
which ought and should be kept by pharmaceutists. This formulary is a code 
for the guidance of medical practitioners and pharmaceutists, while protecting 
the public health from the dangers of empiricism, and the treacherous seductions 
of charlatanism (in no country, perhaps, is there more quackery than in France) ; 
it is, at the same time, a safe guide for the practitioner, and an assured means 
of order and supervision for the Government. But in order to accomplish this, 
it should, in truth, be upon a level, or keep pace with science; it should present 
at all times a faithful resume ; it should verify and record all progress; it should, 
in fact, express the last teaching of the lecturer and the schools. It is then 
essentially a progressive work, and one that is called upon, at certain intervals 
of time, to submit to complete revision or reconstruction ; with the P. B. it was 
reconstruction, which has already, and I trust with advantage, been submitted 
to revision, and again reconstruction. The progress of science which necessi¬ 
tated a revision of the Codex in 1835, did, in 18G1, produce a similar result; and 
thus in July 18GG, rather more than four years after the commencement of the 
labours of the Commission, composed of men eminent for their learning and 
skill, was produced the present Codex, in which there is much to admire and 
from which all pharmaceutists may gather instruction ; at any rate, only to take 
it up at leisure moments and read it, will not fail to expand the mind. This 
brings me to the Preface. It, like our own, expresses the opinions of the Com- 
