A%Jr°ni;m2RM'}  Elegant  Pharmacy.  161 
may  even  represent  more  than  1  grain  of  powdered  opium  in  thera- 
peutic action,  though  lacking  slightly  in  strength,  from  the  fact  of  its 
being  in  a  more  diifusible  state. 
t%%  of  the  opium  used  was  taken  up  by  the  menstruum,  and  each 
fluidounce  of  the  tincture  contained  4*93  grains  of  morphia. 
The  residues  left  in  making  Galenical  preparations  are  always 
more  or  less  charged  with  traces  of  their  active  principles.  The 
proper  menstrua  and  mode  of  preparing  them  presents  a  wide  and 
interesting  field  for  investigation. 
ELEGANT  PHARMACY. 
"  Nuuquam  non  paratus." 
The  above  not  inapplicable  term,  "Elegant  Pharmacy^  has  been 
frequently  brought  to  my  notice,  and  demanded  from  me  considerable 
attention  as  a  subject  worthy  of  consideration  and  study  by  all  prac- 
titioners of  this  now  fast  advancing  science.  I  have  been  more  par- 
ticularly attracted  by  it  of  late,  not  only  by  the  vast  strides  that  have 
been  made  in  the  development  of  the  science,  but  as  well  by  the  ex- 
isting fact  of  the  great  increase  in  the  numbers  of  the  practitioners 
and  votaries  of  one  distinct  branch  of  the  art  known  as  homoeopathic 
pharmacy.  With  them,  in  my  mind,  elegant  pharmacy  is  one  of  the 
great  causes  of  their  increase  and  success.  Without  granting  them 
to  be  on  equal  grounds  with  regard  to  the  virtues  of  their  prepara- 
tions, or  that  their  infinitesimal  deductions  are  a  reality,  and  their 
theory  a  correct  one,  we  of  the  old  school  cannot  but  admire  the  taste- 
less, agreeable,  non-nauseating  doses  they  administer — the  elegant 
pharmacy  they  display  in  their  medicinal  preparations. 
That  this  course  might  be  more  closely  followed  by  allopathic  phar- 
maceutists is,  I  think,  practical,  and  needs  only  the  aid  and  unison  of 
action  on  the  part  of  the  allopathic  physician  with  the  pharmacist. 
The  homoeopathic  physician  is,  with  but  few  exceptions,  a  dispenser 
as  well  as  practioner  ;  his  remedies  are  in  almost  every  case  special 
preparations,  always  ready  for  his  use.  With  the  allopathic  physi- 
cian it  is  different ;  he  depends  on  the  pharmacist  for  the  compounding 
of  his  formula.  The  knowledge  of  medicine  is  only  one  of  the  many 
branches  with  which  the  physician  must  of  necessity  be  familiar. 
The  virtues,  powers  and  actions  of  the  different  remedial  agents 
brought  to  his  notice,  form  part  of  the  study  of  his  profession,  but 
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