PHARMACOPffilA OF ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYeilCIANS. 
319 
REVIEW. 
ART. LIV.— PHARMACOPCEIA OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE 
OF PHYSICL\NS. London, 1836. 
We may imagine the awe and admiration with which our 
fathers most probably regarded the first authorized codes of 
pharmaceutic lore; and as they studied the innumerable com- 
ponents of the Mythridate, what visions of powdered peri- 
wigs, long cues, three cocked hats, and gold headed canes, 
must have floated before their eyes. But now, when, " like 
angels' visits, few and far between," these comets spring 
forward to illuminate the medical horizon, we no longer are 
filled with alarm and dismay; every eye becomes armed with 
a philosophic tube, and particulars with respect to their disks, 
and tails, and perihelions, become subjects of the strictest scru- 
tiny and criticism. There are many reasons why we should 
feel considerable interest in the publication of the New London 
Pharmacopoeia. In this age of assimilation, no doubt the at- 
tempt will be made, before long, to make us Irish, swallow our 
medicine after the most approved London pattern; and it is 
most likely that this new edition of the London Pharmacopoeia 
will be followed by a corresponding revisal of the Dublin. 
Now it becomes an important question, by how far the Dublin, 
College can conscientiously agree with the results of London 
deliberation in promoting the assimilation referred to. We, 
therefore, open this book with more than ordinary anxiety, to 
ascertain whether it will serve as a model for a " Pharmaco- 
poeia Britannica;" but, previously to entering into an examina- 
tion of its merits, let us inquire what are the objects which are 
desirable to fulfil in a Pharmacopoeia; what are the principles 
upon which it should be founded. In our opinion, a Phar- 
macopoeia should consist in an enumeration of the simples 
which should be kept in the laboratories of compounding 
chemists, together with a formulary for the preparation of all 
those compounds which are not usually found in com- 
