JLni.  Jour.  Pharm.  | 
January,  1915.  / 
The  British  Pharmacopoeia. 
45 
The  B.  coli  is  an  intestinal  organism  of  man,  and  its  presence  in 
water  may  be  termed  the  red  flag  for  typhoid  and  other  diseases, 
and,  like  the  innocuous  red  flag  at  the  railway  crossing,  is  a  warning 
of  great  danger.  It  is  important,  therefore,  to  gain  some  quick  and 
reasonably  accurate  means  of  determining  the  presence  of  B.  coli 
in  domestic  water  supplies.  The  ordinary  test  with  lactose  bile  media 
is  not  considered  very  delicate  ;  in  fact,  some  authorities  have  pro- 
nounced it  only  twenty  per  cent,  efficient. 
What  Mr.  Cowles  has  done  is  to  add  one  to  two  per  cent,  of  bicar- 
bonate of  soda  to  the  medium,  with  the  result  that  the  B.  coli  grows 
rapidly  and  other  forms  slowly,  besides  which  the  soda  will  prevent 
the  growth  of  moulds  and  spreaders,  the  latter  quick-growing  things 
that  come,  perhaps,  from  the  atmosphere  and  cover  and  obscure  the 
plate.  The  whole  story,  which  already  bears  useful  results,  is  but  a 
report  of  progress,  and  is  suggestive  of  the  untouched  flelds  for 
investigation  that  are  here  waiting  for  the  biologist.— Science  Con- 
spectus, Xo.  2,  1914. 
THE  BRITISH  PHARMACOPOEIA,  1914. 
On  October  1,  1914,  the  General  Medical  Council  (the  statutory 
authority  for  preparing  and  publishing  the  British  Pharmacopoeia) 
issued  to  the  Press  specimen  copies  of  the  new  edition  of  the  work, 
which  on  December  31,  1914,  will  come  into  force  in  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland,  replacing  the  previous  edition  of  1898.  A  comprehen- 
sive preliminary  survey  of  the  new  edition  appeared  in  The  Chemist 
and  Druggist,  October  3,  p.  49,  and  further  details  in  succeeding 
issues.  In  the  Chemist  and  Druggist  Diary  for  191 5  is  described  the 
chemistry  and  materia  medica  of  the  new  work,  which  contains  forty- 
three  new  articles  and  preparations,  but  168  of  the  old  monographs 
have  been  omitted,  these  including  several  from  the  Indian  and 
Colonial  Addendum. 
One  of  the  most  striking  features  of  the  Pharmacopoeia  is  the 
evidence  of  its  having  been  subjected  to  a  boiling-down  process. 
Drugs  which  are  seldom  used  have  been  expurgated ;  crude  products 
from  which  alkaloids  are  made  are  deleted,  and  in  many  cases  only 
the  active  principles  are  given.  The  descriptions  in  the  monographs 
are  more  terse  and  reduced  to  as  few  words  as  possible,  often  so 
as  to  remind  one  of  Browning's  style,  vigorous  but  somewhat  abrupt. 
Particles,  pronouns,  conjunctions,  and  even  auxiliary  verbs,  are  fre- 
