THE CODEX AND THE BRITISH PH ARM A COPCEI A. 
633 
accounted the best, and then the Bourbon. There is some little difficulty in 
keeping it. If enclosed in a bottle, the moisture given off is apt to produce a 
mouldy growth. The French keep it in tins, between layers of powdered white 
sugar, and this sugar is afterwards used in confectionery. 
I may mention some few important articles contained in the P. B. Materia 
Medica which I do not find in the Codex; for instance, bebeeru bark, bael, 
capsicum, gamboge, chiretta, elaterium, hemidesmus, kamela, and podophyllum. 
From amongst ordinary fruits, we have in the Codex the fig, strawberry, rasp¬ 
berry, red currant, mulberry, apple, plum, and the raisin ; and among many 
simples in the Codex, with and without the asterisk, are musk seed, smallage, 
lion’s-foot, bear’s-foot or ladies’-mantle, garlic, galium, houseleek, ground ivy, 
lycopodium or club-moss, sorrel, eryngo, periwinkle, coltsfoot, and many others. 
This brings me to the end of this portion of the Materia Medica, which I have 
endeavoured to make as interesting and as little tedious as possible. Without 
asking any one to take the book and study it, I will add a word or two before 
parting this evening. My younger listeners may draw their own conclusions. 
The cid honof of education has been mooted over and over again, within and 
without these walls. Let me tell a simple fact of my early life. When a very 
little boy, the youngest of nine boys, my parents wisely and kindly deter¬ 
mined that I should go to school and rough it, and at a later date sent me to 
France to get what some folks were pleased to call a smattering of French. 
W^ell, perhaps it was only a smattering, but had I been denied this, and had my 
parents simply joined in the general cry of cui hono? I should not now in all 
probability have been able to read this book, nor should I have had the pleasure 
of meeting you this evening and offering for your consideration this portion of 
my labours. 
Materia Medica : Second Series. 
This part treats of substances derived from minerals, and chemical products. 
As in the first series, these are arranged alphabetically, and attached to each is 
a description of its physical qualities, the means in most instances by which 
its purity can be ascertained, and the care needful for its preservation. I shall 
select some only, give the remarks of the Codex, and occasionally those of the 
P. B. The ordinary chemical names and synonyms are in French, and the 
modern chemical name in Latin. To proceed to the Articles— 
Acetate de Cuivre Basique, Sous-Acetate de Cuivre, Vert-de-Gris, Suhace- 
tas cupriciis; Subacetate of Copper, or Cupric Subacetate. Description in 
Codex. A bluish-green mass, containing particles of copper and remains of the 
grape marc, with a decided metallic taste, only partially soluble in water. In 
the manufacture of this Latin name, the noun substantive of the second element 
is converted into an adjective, cuprum into cupricus, and as acetate, carbonate, 
and sulphate are of the masculine gender in French, they have been so rendered it 
in Latin, but in the P. B., as in the former P. L., they were looked upon as 
nouns ending in -as increasing in the genitive and of the feminine gender, in 
the Dublin Pharmacopoeia they were made neuter. So the Codex would write 
Subacetas cupricus, P. B. Subacetas cuprica, and P. D. Subacetas cupricum. 
Without attempting a solution of this problem, one cannot keep down the rising- 
thought—if these three cannot agree about the gender of a word, how long will 
it take to realize the vision of the universal Pharmacopoeia ? But to return. 
*Acide Arsenieux, Oxyde Blanc d’Arsenic, Arsenic Blanc, Acidum Arsenio- 
sum; Arsenious acid, white arsenic. When recent, it is glassy and transparent; 
in time it becomes opaque. It is odourless, volatilized by heat, and emits, 
when thrown upon live coal a strong smell of garlic ; it is very slightly soluble 
in cold water, more so in boiling; a solution of it gives a yellow precipitate 
upon the addition of hydrosulphuric acid. The B. B. is as follows :—Charac- 
VOL. VIII. ^ u 
