EDITORIAL. 
235 
We  cannot  do  better  than  to  give  the  Authors'  own  reasons  why  this 
edition  has  been  delayed,  and  why  its  revision  required  an  unusual 
amount  of  revisional  labor.  Few  readers  require  to  be  informed  of  the  de- 
cease of  Dr.  Bache,  one  of  the  authors  of  the  work,  which  threw  the  whole 
responsibility  of  the  revision  upon  Dr.  Wood,  at  a  time  when  circumstances 
called  for  an  unusual  number  of  changes  and  great  clearness  of  judgment. 
"The  delay  of  the  revision  was  caused  by  the  unfinished  state  of  the 
Pharmacopoeias,  which  were  to  constitute  the  basis  of  the  new  edition,  as 
the  old  Pharmacopoeias  had  done  of  the  preceding.  It  was  known  that 
the  U.  S.  Pharmacopoeia  was  undergoing  a  thorough  revision,  with  many 
and  important  changes  ;  and  it  was  equally  notorious  that  the  three  British 
Pharmacopoeias  were  in  the  course  of  consolidation  into  one  ;  which,  it 
was  supposed,  would  retain  few  features  of  the  former  works,  and  almost 
none  unaltered.  Under  these  circumstances,  it  would  have  been  folly  to 
undertake  a  new  revision  of  the  Dispensatory,  which,  when  completed, 
would  in  a  short  time  have  had  its  whole  foundation  undermined." 
"In  the  second  place,  the  changes  made  both  in  our  own  and  the  British 
Pharmacopoeias,  rendered  indispensable  similar  changes  in  the  Dispensa- 
tory. One  not  familiar  with  the  subject  can  scarcely  appreciate  the  con- 
stant vigilance,  the  unceasing  attention  to  the  minutest  details  running 
through  every  part  of  the  work,  which  were  necessary  to  obviate  confu- 
sion and  prevent  embarrassing  mistakes  in  making  the  book  conform  to 
the  present  standards.  Not  only  was  it  requisite  to  introduce  all  that  was 
new,  to  alter  positions  in  conformity  with  the  changes  in  the  standards, 
and  to  notice  and  discuss  all  modifications,  whether  in  substance  or  in 
form  ;  but  there  was  a  constant  recurring  necessity  to  solve  the  various 
practical  problems  arising  from  the  substitution  of  a  single  one  for  the 
three  former  British  Pharmacopoeias,  which  were  referred  to  at  a  greater 
or  less  length  in  almost  every  page. 
"  Taking  these  circumstances  into  consideration,  and  reflecting,  in  the 
third  place,  how  greatly  the  field  of  labor  has  been  extended  for  the  sur- 
viving author  by  the  decease  of  his  colleague,  the  reader  will  understand 
that  he  has  had  a  very  heavy  task  upon  his  hands,  and  will  not  be  dis- 
posed to  censure  him  for  a  delay  in  the  appearance  of  the  present  edition, 
which  could  have  been  shortened  only  at  the  expense  of  the  usefulness  and 
trustworthiness  of  the  work  itself." 
In  glancing  over  the  pages  on  Materia  Medica,  detailed  notices  of  many 
new  articles,  officinal  in  either  the  U.  S.  or  British  Pharmacopoeias,  will 
be  found,  among  which  are  chromic,  lactic  and  glacial  phosphoric  acids, 
Bela,  Berberis,  Caffea,  Cypripedium,  Gelseminum,  Gutta  percha,  Hydrastis, 
carbonate  of  lithia,  permanganate  of  potassa,  Leptandra,  01.  Camphorse, 
01.  Theobromae,  01.  Thymi,  Pepo,  Hottlera,  Santonica,  Sodae  sulphis,  spt. 
Frumenti,  spt.  Myrciae,  vanilla,  &c,  besides  many  to  be  found  in  the  third 
part  of  the  work  of  lesser  importance  or  not  officinal.     An  examination 
