REVIEW 
353 
publication of the ‘ British Pharmacopoeia/ to refer to such 
Pharmacopoeia.” We see, then, by the perusal of this 
section of the Act referred to, that it was the laudable 
desire of the Medical Council to get rid of the absurdity, 
inconvenience, and even danger, of British medical practice 
being encumbered with three more or less distinct codes for 
the preparation and prescribing of remedial agents. Not¬ 
withstanding, however, the great praise which is due to 
those who have endeavoured to effect a change so important 
and desirable, we are compelled at once to state that the 
f British Pharmacopoeia 9 will have to undergo a searching 
revision and very considerable alteration before it can dis¬ 
place and supersede its three predecessors. This is an 
opinion which is enjoyed, not only by ourselves, but also by 
the majority of prescribers and dispensers of medicine 
throughout the kingdom. 
The f British Pharmaoopoeia 3 is divided into two parts and 
two appendices. The First Part consists of the Materia 
Medica, and the Second of the Preparations and Com¬ 
pounds. The Appendix A contains the Articles employed 
in the Preparation of Medicines, and the Appendix B 
Articles employed in Chemical Analysis. The nature of the 
appendices are sufficiently explained by their titles, but we 
shall now quote portions of the preface in explanation of 
the peculiarities of the two principal divisions of the book. 
“ The Materia Medica contains, in its simplest phar¬ 
maceutic form, every definite medicinal substance, whether 
obtainable in ordinary trade, or prepared by the chemical 
processes in the Second Part, wdiich the Committee of the 
Council found, on careful inquiry, to be so far approved in 
practice as to be entitled to a place in the f National Phar¬ 
macopoeia/ Under each article are given ,—“ 1. A Latin 
pharmaceutic name, by which it may be prescribed ” (the 
entire matter of the work, with this sole exception, is briefly 
rendered in the simplest possible English ); “ and an 
English name for use in describing the processes in the 
Second Part. 2. Its definition, together with its chemical 
symbol, if it be a substance of definite composition; its 
botanical name if it be a plant; and also in most cases, a 
reference to a correct figure of the plant, and a statement 
