AnAUgu"t"  Ens™"}   Pharmacy  of  British  Pharmacopoeia.  361 
used  throughout,  even  for  the  statement  of  doses,  "  in  the  expectation 
that  in  the  near  future  the  system  will  be  generally  adopted  by  British 
prescribers."  ''At  the  present  time  students  and  practitioners  of 
medicine  are  accustomed  to  use  the  metric  system  in  connection  with 
the  work  of  chemical,  physical,  physiological,  pathological,  and  phar- 
macological laboratories ;  it  will  doubtless  facilitate  the  application  of 
science  to  practice  when  the  same  system  is  used  for  therapeutic 
purposes  also."  We  sincerely  trust  that  in  this  respect  the  British 
practitioners  of  medicine,  veterinary  medicine,  and  pharmacy  are 
more  ready  to  adopt  this  innovation  than  have  been  their  American 
brethren  in  these  professions.  The  term  "  cubic  centimetre  "  is  dis- 
placed by  "  millilitre,"  and  in  the  statement  of  doses  in  the  metric 
system  this  is  abbreviated  to  "  mil."  and  the  fractional  portions  are 
"  decimil."  and  "  centimil." 
In  the  preface  it  is  recommended  that  prescribers  cease  to  employ 
the  long-used  symbols  for  drachm  and  ounce,  as  they  are  apt  to  be 
misread,  and  are  used  at  times  to  convey  different  meanings.  The 
symbol  5,  for  example,  "  is  to  represent  sometimes  480  grains,  some- 
times 437.5  grains,  and  also  to  represent  1  fluidounce." 
The  preface  likewise  defines  what  is  meant  by  a  percentage 
solution;  "  thus  a  solution  of  '  1  in  10  '  or  '  10  per  cent.'  means  that 
one  gramme  of  a  solid  or  one  millilitre  of  a  liquid  is  contained  in  ten 
millilitres  of  the  solution."  This  statement  is  not  strictly  accurate, 
nor  is  it  in  accord  with  the  exact  meaning  of  the  word  percentage. 
In  considering  synonymy,  only  the  most  important  of  the  synonyms 
employed  in  prescribing  have  been  inserted.  Abbreviations  of  the 
Latin  titles  have  been  adopted  and  published  as  a  table  in  the 
Appendix.  In  this  the  revisers  were  undoubtedly  influenced  by  a 
foreknowledge  of  the  intent  of  the  U.  S.  P.  IX  in  this  direction. 
The  acceptance  of  the  principles  of  "  The  International  Agree- 
ment "  promulgated  by  the  International  Congress  for  the  Unification 
of  the  Formulae  for  Potent  Drugs  and  Preparations,  held  at  Brussels 
in  1902,  has  necessitated  some  changes  in  this  edition  of  the  British 
Pharmacopoeia.  The  practice  of  Great  Britain  as  well  as  America 
has  been  to  measure  liquids  by  volume  and  solids  by  weight,  and  this 
has  been  maintained  instead  of  following  the  custom  of  continental 
practice,  and  endorsed  by  that  agreement,  of  weighing  liquids  as 
well  as  solids. 
The  substances  admitted  are  not  numerous  and  are  covered  in 
a  list  of  43  titles.    Cantharidin  replaces  cantharis  and  mylabris,  and 
