EDITOllIAL. 
89 
OSMtorial  ^Department. 
Kochleder's  Proximate  Analysis  of  Plants. — We  commence  in  this 
numbeif  the  publication  of  Rochleder's  work  on  the  proximate  analysis  of 
vegetable  substances,  which  we  propose  to  continue  in  future  numbers 
regularly.  We  have  a  manuscript  translation  of  the  entire  work,  by  Mr. 
John  M.  Maisch,  which  we  propose  partially  to  employ,  and  partially  to 
avail  ourselves  of  the  translation  now  being  published  in  the  Pharmaceu- 
tical Journal.  The  work,  when  completed,  will  afford  a  valuable  source  of 
practical  information  on  this  difficult  sulyect,  heretofore  almost  inaccessible 
in  English  books.    (See  page  81.) 
New  Weights  op  the  British  Pharmacopeia. — The  subject  of  Weights 
and  Measures  is  always  one  of  paramount  importance  to  the  Pharmaceu- 
tist; without  these  useful  aids  we  cannot  conceive  of  accuracy  or  scienti- 
fic precision  in  our  processes  ;  yet  it  is  so  difl&cult  to  effect  reforms  involv- 
ing a  change  in  the  general  customs  of  trade,  that  the  greatest  inconveni- 
ences are  submitted  to,  rather  than  interfere  with  them. 
In  England  and  the  United  States  the  anomaly  exists  of  using,  or  pro- 
fessing to  use,  among  Druggists  and  Apothecaries,  one  system  of  weights 
for  buying  and  selling  and  another  for  mixing  and  combining,  a  custom 
entailed  by  early  English  sovereigns  tampering  with  the  silver  currency, 
which  at  that  time  regulated  the  weights  and  measures.  The  greatest  evil 
of  this  anomaly  stated  in  brief  is  this  ; — The  National  Pharmacopoeia 
processes  all  require  troy  weight.  Carelessness  or  ignorance,  or  interest, 
induce  a  large  number  of  Apothecaries  and  Druggists  to  use  the  avoir- 
dupois ounce  of  437^  grains,  and  its  divisions,  in  lieu  of  the  troy  ounce  of 
480  grains.  To  avoid  this  evil,  the  Committee  now  engaged  inrevising  the 
British  Pharmacopoeia  early  considered  the  various  remedies  which  had 
been  proposed,  and  finally  adopted  the  suggestion  of  Dr.  Charles  Wilson, 
of  Edinburgh,  the  Secretary  of  the  Scottish  branch  of  that  Committee, 
which  virtually  remedies  the  difficulty  by  having  but  one  system  of  weights 
for  use  in  Pharmacy, — the  avoirdupois  weight,  now  universally  employed 
in  general  trade.  But  the  minor  divisions  of  avoirdupois  weight  are  not 
sufficiently  minute  to  replace  the  Apothecaries  weight,  and  the  chief  point 
in  the  proposed  change  is  that  the  Avoirdupois  ounce  of  437.5  grains  be  di- 
vided precisely  as  the  present  Apothecaries  ounce,  into  480  parts  to  be 
called  grains,  20  of  such  grains  to  make  a  scruple,  3  scruples  to  make  a 
drachm,  and  8  drachms  to  make  an  ounce  ;  above  whicli  the  divisions  are 
the  same  as  in  the  avoirdupois  table. 
Now  the  great  merit  of  this  proposition  is,  that  it  does  not  change  the 
