REVIEW  OF  PHAHMACOPCEIA  HELVETICA. 
207 
PHARMACOPOEIA  HELVETICA.     SCAPHUSIiE  EX  OFFX- 
CINA   BRODTMANNIANA,  Chr.  Fr.  Stoetzner  ;  1865. 
The  Swiss  Apothecaries'  Association  was  instituted  in  1845. 
As  early  as  1848  it  advocated  the  introduction  of  a  Swiss  Phar- 
macopoeia, to  take  the  place  of  the  numerous  pharmacopoeias  and 
dispensatories,  partly  from  foreign  countries,  which  wTere  used  in 
the  different  cantons.  The  Association  finally  took  the  matter 
in  hand,  and  appointed  a  committee,  who,  after  five  or  six  years' 
labor,  produced  a  work  which  appeared  in  print  under  the  above 
title. 
The  work  is  printed  in  large  octavo,  on  good  paper,  with 
clear  type,  the  officinal  names  and  the  materials  used  for  the 
preparations  with  prominent  letters,  and  altogether  presents  an 
excellent  appearance,  creditable  at  once  to  its  authors  and  pub- 
lisher. The  language  adopted  is  the  Latin,  this  being  the  more 
necessary  since  three  different  languages  are  spoken  in  different 
parts  of  Switzerland ;  for  the  same  reason,  each  officinal  name 
is  followed  by  its  synonyms  in  the  German,  French  and  Italian 
languages. 
In  its  general  character  the  work  resembles  the  pharmacopoeias 
of  Germany,  there  being  no  classification  of  the  material, — all 
being  arranged  in  alphabetical  order,  not  in  groups,  as  in  oar 
pharmacopoeia.  An  enumeration  and  description  of  the  simple 
drugs,  however,  is  not  contained  therein ;  the  text  of  278  pages 
consists  of  directions  for  preparing  the  officinal  pharmaceuticals 
and  chemicals,  together  with  a  short  description  of  their  proper- 
ties and  the  reactions  of  their  purity  ;  no  process  is  given  for 
most  chemicals  which  are  best  and  cheapest  prepared  on  the 
large  scale  ;  but  either  absolute  purity  or  a  certain  standard 
quality  is  required,  to  be  ascertained  by  tests. 
The  text  is  followed  by  a  table  occupying  five  pages,  giving 
the  solubility  of  various  acids,  salts,  alkaloids  and  other  princi- 
ples, in  water,  alcohol  and  ether,  at  the  normal  temperature  of 
17°  C,  and  at  or  near  the  boiling  point  of  the  solvent.  Included 
in  this  table  we  also  find  a  number  of  compounds  which  are  not 
enumerated  among  or  used  in  obtaining  the  preparations :  we 
mention  atropia,  cantharidin,  caffeina,  digitalin,  mannit,  and  a 
few  inorganic  salts. 
