354 
REVIEW. 
of the quarter whence the article is obtained. 3. The 
characters by which it may be distinguished from all other 
articles of the Materia Medica. 4. The tests by which it 
may be ascertained to be of due strength, and free from 
known impurities or adulterations. And 5. The preparations 
of which it is an active ingredient.” 
“ The Second Part comprises processes for the forms in 
which medicines may be used in extemporaneous prescrip¬ 
tions, and for articles in the Materia Medica obtained by 
chemical operations.” Why the sources, properties, &c., of 
chemicals and drugs should be described in one part of the 
book and their preparation in another part we cannot 
understand, and we feel convinced that this division of such 
kindred subjects will be attended with much inconvenience 
to those for whom the ‘ National Pharmacopoeia/ has been 
compiled. 
In very many instances the names of preparations hitherto 
employed in the Pharmacopoeias of London, Edinburgh, and 
Dublin, have undergone either considerable alteration or 
have been totally changed. Many articles which had long 
existed in the old codices have been omitted, while several 
new ones have found places in the f British Pharmacopoeia/ 
“ The alterations which have occasioned most anxiety to 
the Council are those which affect the strength, and there¬ 
fore the doses, of dangerous medicines. Three measures 
have been adopted for securing the public against the risks 
which might arise from such changes. In the first place, 
important changes in the strength of dangerous preparations 
have been carefully noted. Secondly, when change was 
inevitable, the weaker form has been preferred to the 
stronger. Thirdly, an attempt has been made to assimilate 
the strength of preparations of the same pharmaceutic form, 
in order that they may be prescribed in similar doses. 
* * * * Thus, among tinctures, those made with 
dangerous ingredients are, with few exceptions, brought to 
one standard of strength, so that an ordinary dose is from 
fifteen to twenty-five minims; while all tinctures made with 
substances of no great activity are left, as formerly, uniform 
in strength, so that an ordinary dose is from one to two 
fluid drachms.” These doses, of course, are those which 
