390 
EDITORIAL. 
ceutical portion ; and whilst the former has increased from 751 to 765 
pages, the latter has been swelled from 477 to 523, notwithstanding the ut- 
most exertions of the authors to compress the matter into the smallest space 
consistent with perspicuity, to accomplish which they have frequently re- 
sorted to foot notes in small type. In the first division of the work among 
the new matter, will be found the articles Hemidesmus, or Indian Sarsapa- 
rilla, an officinal of the Dublin Pharmacopoeia ; Matico ; Cod-liver oil under 
its new name Oleum Morrhuae; Saccharum Lactis, of the Dublin Pharm. ; 
Silex Contritus of the London Pharm. , 1851, which is used as an agent in 
making Medicated Waters ; and Spiritus Pyroxilicus, the Dublin name for 
the commercial Wood Naptha. Important additions will be found at the 
articles Cinchona, Elaterium, Wax, and many others. 
In the second division, the preliminary chapter on pharmaceutical opera- 
tions and apparatus, has been re-arranged and extended, and embraces 
most of the newer suggestions in practical pharmacy, not included in the 
general observations at the head of Classes of Preparations. Several new 
figures have been introduced, illustrative of apparatus or operations. No 
part of the appurtenances of the pharmaceutical establishments of the United 
States is less attended to, or has less expended on it, than that of appara- 
tus. Indeed, the sparsity of such means in many stores renders the prac- 
tice of purchasing some preparations — that should always be made by the 
apothecary himself — almost necessary. The authors of the Dispensatory, 
aware of the value of the process of solution called displacement or percola- 
tion, and of its liability to be imperfectly executed, have taken pains to ren- 
der the details of the process as clear as possible. 
The articles Gallic Acid, Chloroform and Collodion, are fully commented 
on ; all the facts connected with these new remedies being carefully brought 
out. Under the head Alcohol, we find Alcohol Amylicum, or fused oil, 
the substance used in the Dublin Pharm. for obtaining valerianic acid ; the 
stronger alcohols of the Dublin and Edinburgh Colleges ; and the diluted 
alcohols, which are very properly placed under the one head. If the 
pyroxilic spirit of the Dublin Pharmacopoeia was a preparation, it should 
come under this head, as Methylic Alcohol. Among the antimonials, we 
observe that the Dublin College have adopted pure oxide of antimony in 
the preparation of tartar emetic, and directs pulvis antimonialis to be made 
by precipitating a mixture of tartar emetic, phosphate of soda and chloride 
of calcium, so as to get a mixture of ter-oxide of antimony and phosphate 
of lime. This preparation must be much more active and uniform than 
that prepared by the old method. 
The chapters Argentum and Arsenicum are much extended. Under 
the head of Plasters we notice a figure of the apparatus employed for 
spreading plasters with margins. The latest information relative to the 
officinal extracts has been incorporated in the several notices of that class. 
'Fluid Extracts' peculiar to our Pharmacopoeia, and now so much in 
vogue, are noticed in detail under a separate head. Ferri Pulvis, Citras, 
