122 
SELECTED ARTICLES. 
N. B. The formula of the Codex, 1818, is not in use in 
the shops. Antimonial wine is generally made with two 
grains of tartar emetic to the ounce of Malaga wine. This 
is an extremely cor /enient formula, as regards the dose of 
the tartar emetic, but, at the same time, the salt makes only 
the two hundred and eighty-eighth part, and when dispensed 
— in accordance with the directions of foreign physicians — 
the strength of the medicine diminishes in the ratio of six 
to five. 
Plummer^s Pills. 
The Codex contains no formula for the pills of Plummer, 
yet this preparation is admitted into a great number of Phar- 
macopoeias, and French physicians prescribe it very frequently. 
It appears to me of more consequence to insert the formula 
into the new Codex, as it is one of those which present a 
greater number of variations. 
Many authors make a distinction between the simple and 
compound pills of Plummer, by designating, under this last 
name, those containing the resin of guaiacum, while they 
appropriate the name of simple pills to those into which 
enters the extract of fumitory, of gentian, or liquorice, &c.; as 
the one preparation is not less compound than the other, and 
as physicians never prescribe simple or compound pills, but 
only Plummer's pills, the best practice is to choose the for- 
mula most in use, and which in addition, affords a medicine 
least alterable and most efficacious. That of the London 
Pharmacopoeia appears to merit preference in all these parti- 
culars; it is as follows: 
[Dr. Plummer'' s Pills.) Pilulsehydrargyri suhmuriatis 
compositde. L. 
Jfe Calomel 
Golden sulphur of antimony ^ 3ij 
Powdered resin of guaiacum §ss 
Alcohol q. s. 
