THEORY OF THE UNIVERSAL CODEX. 
639 
a huge voliirninous compendium ; or it must abandon formulse altogether, and 
include only the simpler substances, such as Carbonate of Soda, Corrosive Sub¬ 
limate, Iodide of Potassium, and Castor Oil. But Pharmacopoeias do not happen 
to exist; they are formed to meet certain clearly defined requirements, and 
must differ according to the habits of the people who are to use them, the 
drugs which a country produces, climate, and other considerations. The Indian 
Pharmacopoeia, now being drawn up, is designed to afford to European resi¬ 
dents, and to the many natives at present educated in the Government Colleges, 
convenient formulae for prescribing inter alia those drugs commonly found in 
India.— 
That a Pharmacopoeia should in the main be built up. Granted that com¬ 
mercial enterprise developes the resources of the world, by bringing the pro¬ 
duce of widely separated lauds within the common reach, nevertheless that is 
the truest wisdom which, by a knowledge of the very soil and climate, most 
renders Pharmacy independent of foreign aid. This also is the doctrine of accli. 
matization so nobly followed out by Montigny and his successors: why should 
our ships bring that which our own soil will grow? And though we must 
wait in patience for a “ new heaven,” we may anticipate the ‘‘ new earth give 
the ground a chance, and thus may it become justissima tellus^ and repay cent, 
per cent, the cultivator’s toil. But just as the grand art is to discover plants 
which will suit the soil, so must the book which describes fornmlse suit the 
nation ; nor can any real uniformity be adopted so long as remedies are frozen 
in one climate and melted in another. 
No man can change his nationality, he bears it with him to the Tropics and 
Labrador; but he can change the climate and his whole mode of life, and hence 
the routine of ordinary business arrangements may help us in the consideration 
of this subject. No Pharmaceutist blindly executes a foreign outfit; his trade 
interest requires that it should be adapted to the exigencies of travel; to do 
otherw'ise would be the surest mode of forfeiting the confidence of his employer. 
Plow, let me ask, do you fill a medicine chest for the journey up the Nile? 
Supply a famous quantity of the Sulphates of Quinine and Zinc—read Elliot 
Warburton, and keej) your eustomer. 
I will not trouble you further with the question, it seems scarcely worth an 
argument. But one objection must be met. Some think it would be most 
desirable to assimilate the strength of medicinal solutions. I believe this would 
add one more source of confusion and anxiety. What profit would it be to 
render solutions uniform when you never can assimilate the dose ? Supposing 
quinine had all the world over the strength of one grain to the drachm,—three 
drachms would be a dose in England—but the London dispenser would be 
staggered by a prescription from Calcutta, though coming with all the dignity 
of an assimilated solution. It has been my lot to have been thrown theoreti¬ 
cally, commercially, and in daily life with PTench and Belgian Pharmacy; I 
know practically the effect of remedies on wdiat is popularly termed the 
“ foreign constitution.” I should hesitate to exhibit two ounces of Ilaustus 
Niger to a man on the other side of the Channel,—in a choleraic season I 
should tremble for the result. A drachm of any purgative syrup and a glass 
of seltzer would in general prove successful; noram I astonished at the fact, 
when I see a whole nation drinking strong ale, and another claret. Assi¬ 
milate a purgative solution, or any other—assimilate the long list of tonics, the 
entire range of chemicals, the whole products of Materia Medica, and the result¬ 
ing formula must still be arranged to suit the country where its influence is to 
be exerted. 
There are two assimilations to which Pharmacy can lay no special claim, but 
which it would be wisdom for it to adopt—the first being uniformity of weights 
and measures. The adoption of the Metric-decimal system would be the gain 
