AMMayEM872B'1' }  Reviews  arid  Bibliographical  Notices.  237 
REVIEWS  AND  BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTICES. 
Pharmacopoea  Danica.     Regia  audoritate  edita.  Haunioe.     Impensis  Rett- 
zelii.    1868.    8vo.,  356  pages. 
The  Danish  Pharmacopoeia. 
In  1865,  delegates  from  Denmark,  Norway  and  Sweden  assembled  in  the 
city  of  Stockholm,  to  confer  about  the  pharmacopoeias  of  the  three  countries 
then  requiring  a  revision.  The  main  results  of  this  conference  consist  in  the 
■designation  of  the  proportions  in  all  formulas  by  parts  (by  weight),  the  adoption 
of  uniform  strength  for  all  galenical,  and  particularly  the  more  powerful,  prepa- 
rations contained  in  the  three  pharmacopoeias,  and  in  the  selection  of  a  uniform 
system  of  nomenclature  ;  hence  the  three  pharmacopoeias  are,  in  the  main, 
identical  with  each  other,  and  differ  chiefly  in  the  manipulations  directed  and 
some  other  minor  points.  A  review  of  one  pharmacopoeia  applies,  therefore, 
to  the  others,  with  the  exceptions  mentioned. 
Although  the  Danish  pharmacopoeia  was  issued  two  years  in  advance  of  the 
Norwegian,  reviewed  in  our  February  number,  it  will  be  of  interest  to  compare  the 
two  with  each  other. 
The  tables  appended  to  the  pharmacopoeia  now  before  us  are  not  quite  as 
numerous  as  in  the  other  ;  those  giving  the  strength  and  specific  gravity  o^ 
ammonia  and  of  various  acids,  also  the  tables  of  solubility  and  of  atomic 
weights  have  not  been  introduced.  One  of  the  tables  compares  the  degrees  of 
Spendrup's  (temper.  11*25°  C.)  with  those  of  Tralles'  (temper,  15-625°  C.)  alco- 
holometer, the  former  being  principally  used  in  Denmark  ;  1°  Sp.  =4  857  Tr. ; 
4  =  22-88  ;  8  ==  47  ;  12  ==  71*5  and  16°  Sp.  =  93-25°  Tr,  Morphia  is  not  kept  in 
a  locked  closet,  but  the  shop  bottle  must  be  marked  fff,  like  all  other  heroic 
medicines.  '  : 
Tinctures  are  made  in  the  proportion  of  1:10  or  1:5  (by  weight)  either  by 
maceration  at  15  to  20°  C.  for  eight  days,  or  by  digestion  at  35  to  40°  C.  for 
three  days,  any  loss  in  weight,  which  may  have  been  sustained  during  the  oper- 
tion,  to  be  made  up,  before  filtration,  by  the  addition  of  85  per  cent,  alcohol. 
Plasters  are  preserved  in  metallic  boxes  over  burned  lime,  which  is  to  be  re- 
newed every  three  or  four  weeks.  Dry  narcotic  extracts  are  made,  as  by  the 
Prussian  Pharmacopoeia,  by  adding  enough  powdered  liquorice  root,  so  that  the 
exsiccated  powder  has  double  the  weight  of  the  extract  used  ;  in  prescriptions 
double  the  quantity  ordered  is  dispensed.  The  Norwegian  pharmacopoeia  has 
the  narcotic  extracts  only  in  the  powder  form;  all  contain  one-fourth  of  their 
weight  of  milk  sugar.  Pills,  if  not  otherwise  directed  by  the  physician,  are 
made  so  that  each  contain  0-12  grm.  of  the  articles  enumerated  in  the  prescrip- 
tion. 
All  the  medicated  waters  are  distilled,  one  part  of  the  drug  yielding  ten  parts 
distillate  (aqua  rosse  1*3  ;  aqua  amygdalarum  amararum  concentrata  contains 
0-136— 0-140  per  cent,  hydrocyanic  acid  ;  the  dilute  bitter  almond  water  is  made 
by  adding  to  one  part  of  the  former  19  parts  of  distilled  water).  The  Norwegian 
pharmacopoeia  prepares  all  medicated  waters  by  agitating  one  part  of  the  vola- 
tile oil  with  1000  parts  of  the  water;  if,  however,  the  physician  specially  orders 
distilled  medicated  waters,  they  are  to  be  obtained  by  distilling  from  fruits  or 
