CODEX, OR FRENCH PHARMACOPOEIA. 
2S9 
Chemical Salts, in this catalogue, as indeed throughout 
the work, are invariahly indicated with their acid as the gene- 
ric title; thus we have the genus of Acetates, of Carbonates, 
of Sulphates, of Nitrates, of Tartrates, &c. 
This catalogue differs from that of the United States Phar- 
macopoeia, in employing the national language for its officinal 
titles, and comprising all substances in one alphabetical ar- 
rangement, indicating their relative importance by a mark. 
The bases of salts being employed to indicate the genera in 
the United States Pharmacopoeia is a necessary consequence, 
of the use of the Latin as the language of the profession; and 
so great is our approbation of that custom, that we should by 
no means consider any change in that respect desirable. In 
selecting terms for the Materia Medica, our object is to employ 
such as will indicate, with certainty, the particular medicine, 
and prevent any other from being mistaken, or substituted for 
it. In this respect, both the French and American Pharma- 
copoeias have succeeded, we think; the difference between the 
two being chiefly, if not solely, ascribable to a difference in 
the views of their respective authors, as to the tongue in 
which their names shall be expressed. The motives which 
induced the employment of the French language in the Codex 
will be explained further on. 
The second branch of the inquiry proposed was, whether 
the work contained particular directions for the preparation 
of every compound. Before proceeding to answer this ques- 
tion, it is necessary we should understand that in order 
to render the work entirely independent of the weights and 
measures employed in different countries, so that its formulae 
may every where be employed with facility, the authors have 
in every case indicated merely the proportions in which 
every substance enters into compounds, expressed in deci- 
mals. Besides the employment of the decimals, however, the 
approximate proportion in the ordinary terms of weight is 
also expressed, particularly in those formulae, which are pre- 
pared in the shops. This plan has obviously some advantages, 
but we question whether its adoption at home, would result in 
