THE 
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHARMACY. 
OCTOBER,, 1 843. 
ART. XXXIX. — A NEW AND EXPEDITIOUS MODE OF 
PREPARING HYDRARGYRUM CUM CRETA. 
By Daniel Stewart, of Baltimore. 
Notwithstanding the many difficulties attendant upon 
the preparation and use of this powder, it preserves its rank 
among the list of mercurials, after more than one hundred 
years have tested its comparative value. Indeed, it has re- 
cently been classed among three of the most valuable reme- 
dies from the long list of preparations of mercury, by one 
of the most learned and judicious Professors of Materia Me- 
dica in our county.* The United States Pharmacopoeia, of 
1840., retains it among the officinal preparations; but no 
improvement appears in the formula, although the tedious 
process indicated by it in order to accomplish the minute divi- 
sion of the mercury, has hitherto made us dependant on Eng- 
land for a large proportion of the article used in this country. 
It is generally admitted that the value of this medicine is 
in proportion to the division of the mercury ; but the Phar- 
macopoeia gives no definite rule with regard to the tritura- 
* Professor Chew, of the University of Maryland. Note, also, the 
frequency with which it is prescribed by Sir Charles Bell, in his Insti- 
tutes of Surgery, particularly in the first part of the book; also the pre- 
ference that is given to it by Dr. Gooch— Gooch's Midwifery, p. 310. 
VOL. IX. NO. III. 15 
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