AmAJP°ru';r908arm*}        British  Pharmaceutical  Codex.  173 
cals  are  of  unusual  interest  and  contain  much  that  is  novel  and  valu- 
able, the  formulae  for  galenical  preparations  that  are  contained  in 
this  book  are  even  more  interesting  to  American  pharmacists,  as 
many  of  them  will  be  found  to  be  particularly  useful,  or  at  least 
suggestive,  in  connection  with  the  present-day  propaganda  for  the 
use  of  official  or  open  formula  remedies  in  place  of  the  semi- 
secret  proprietaries  and  out-and-out  nostrums  that  appear  to  be  so 
popular  at  the  present  time. 
In  this  connection  it  will  perhaps  not  be  necessary  to  reiterate 
the  oft-made  statement  that  the  dispensing  pharmacist,  if  he  desires 
to  give  generally  satisfactory  service,  must  enlarge  on  his  possibili- 
ties and  resources  so  as  to  be  in  position  to  compete  with  the  manu- 
facturer in  the  preparation  of  all  of  the  available  dosage  forms  of 
medicine.  To  do  this  it  will  be  necessary  to  be  ever  on  the  look- 
out for  suggestions  that  will  lead  to  the  development  of  new  forms 
for  the  administration  of  active  medicaments,  to  improve  on  the 
well-known  present-day  forms  and  to  be  able  to  demonstrate  that 
in  all  particulars  the  product  of  the  dispensing  pharmacist  is  at 
least  the  equal  and,  in  some  respects  is  decidedly  superior  to  the 
best  that  the  manufacturer  may  have  to  offer. 
Few,  if  any,  books  on  pharmacy  that  have  come  to  my  attention 
offer  a  greater  number  of  suggestions  along  these  very  lines  than 
the  British  Pharmaceutical  Codex,  and  for  this  reason  alone,  if  for 
no  other,  the  book  would  be  a  valuable  addition  to  the  dispensing 
room  of  any  well-organized  pharmacy. 
One  of  the  more  interesting  features,  and  one  that  is  comparatively 
novel  on  this  side  of  the  water,  as  the  Englishman  would  say,  is  the 
use  of  chocolate  as  a  vehicle.  We  have,  it  is  true,  made  use  of 
chocolate,  or  the  color  of  this  substance,  in  the  form  of  variable  mix- 
tures of  oxide  of  iron,  starch  and  sugar,  to  some  extent  as  a  coat- 
ing for  pills,  but  as  yet  the  paste  itself  has  not  been  widely 
exploited  as  a  vehicle  in  the  production  of  extemporaneous  prep- 
arations at  the  prescription  counter. 
Theobroma  Paste. — In  the  British  Pharmaceutical  Codex  this  sub- 
stance is  directed  to  be  used  in  the  preparation  of  a  class  of  prep- 
arations designated  as  Tabellae.  The  directions  for  the  making  of 
this  particular  class  of  preparations  are  simple  and  readily  followed, 
and  it  will  be  quite  practicable  to  dispense  these  extemporaneously. 
Theobroma  paste  is  recommended  as  a  vehicle  for  such  sub- 
