926 
REVIEWS. 
The number of preparations included by Professor Tuson 
in the new ‘^Pharmacopoeia^ is very nearly 350—a fact which 
illustrates very strikingly the rapid progress which veterinary 
practice has made within the last few years, and the rapidity 
with which the improvements introduced by human practi¬ 
tioners are adopted by veterinarians. In the description of 
them the author has of course met with the same difficulty 
which beset the framers of the ‘ British Pharmacopoeia/ 
namely, the difficulty of deciding between the new and old 
systems of nomenclature and atomic weights. The new 
systems have now been so generally adopted by chemists that 
to ignore them w'ould have been to keep veterinary science 
in the rear of progress; but, on the other hand, their intro¬ 
duction is still so recent, that only those practitioners who 
have received their chemical education within the last few 
years can be expected to understand them. 
This difficulty has been surmounted in the following 
manner. Every fact which is important for actual practice 
is stated in the simplest and least scientific language possible, 
and the old nomenclature is retained. Thus, in the prepa¬ 
ration of “ Ferri Carbonas Saccharata/^ we are directed to 
take ‘sulphate of iron^ and ‘carbonate of ammonia,"’ instead 
of ‘ferrous sulphate"’ and ‘ ammonium carbonate,^ as they are 
called in the new system. But, on the other hand, all the 
purely scientific portions are given in the most modern 
scientific form. The composition of the above-named mix¬ 
ture, for example, is thus described : 
“ Ferrous carbonate (carbonate of iron), EeCO^, mixed 
with ferric oxide, FcgO^, and sugar, the carbonate forming at 
least 57 per cent, of the mixture.^^ 
And the description of the chemical change which attends 
its preparation is given in a similar style. The atomic 
weight and formulae employed throughout the work are those 
of the new system, but this will probably be a matter of 
indifference to the practitioner, who, we fancy, does not 
often bother his head about either of them. Whether green 
vitriol be FeS 04 or FeO, SO 3 , and whether it ought to be 
called ferrous sulphate, or sulphate of iron, he will find easily 
enough that he is to take two ounces of it, and that is the 
main thing after all. 
Another novelty introduced into the book is in the speci¬ 
fication of the doses; these are given not only for horses, but 
also for cattle, sheep, pigs, and dogs. Thus, the doses of 
calomel are stated in the following terms : 
Horse, 20 to 60 grains; cattle, 10 to 30 grains; sheep, 
4 to 8 grains; pig, 1 to 4 grains; dog, 1 to 4 grains."’^ 
