CODEX, OR FRENCH PHARMACOPOEIA. 
295 
Whenever a doubt arose as to the better process for obtaining 
any preparation, comparative experiments were resorted to, and 
their results examined with scrupulous care, — frequently, 
indeed, recourse was had to the effects of the remedy when 
administered. The particular position of the members in 
their respective professions gave them many facilities in re- 
moving difficulties which arose. " We also profited, (say they,) 
by observations furnished us by the societies of pharmacy of 
the different cities of the kingdom, and also by our worthy 
colleagues. In a word, we have sought and obtained light, 
wherever we have thought it could be found, in order to im- 
prove as much as was in our power, the work which we 
had been called upon to put forth." They add, " that if they 
have not adopted all the formulae which were furnished, 
it was because they considered it was a general code 
which they were called upon to furnish, and not a col- 
lection of recipes which every doctor or apothecary believed 
that he had invented or improved, according to his own 
notions or experience." This is, perhaps, all that need be said 
upon the selection of formulae. 
Perfect uniformity of preparation, as regards material and 
activity, is obtained throughout the whole kingdom inevitably, 
because the Codex being the only source whence recipes are 
allowed to be taken, and there being but one recipe for each 
preparation, physicians in all parts of the country have the 
assurance that when any name is given in a prescription, 
the preparation of the Codex, bearing that name, is the only 
one which can be furnished; and thus as high a degree of cer- 
tainty and uniformity, as regards the effect of remedies, is ob- 
tained, as the nature of their operation on the system will allow. 
The classification and arrangement of the materials of the 
Codex is, we believe, peculiar to it, and we are led to believe 
that, in this respect, this edition of the Codex is unique. The 
general distribution of the subject is into Chemical and Phar- 
maceutical, simples and preparations. The chemical division 
occupying the first eighteen chapters, and the remainder being 
devoted to the pharmaceutical processes. 
