Am\u-uusf'  i9i5.m'}   Chemistry  of  <  British  Pharmacopoeia.  369 
System,  but  that  the  change  was  made  easier  by  the  present  cordial 
relations  existing  between  England  and  France  is  also  doubtless  true. 
Another  radical  change  is  that  the  atomic  weight  table  is  changed 
from  H  =  1  to  o  =  16  to  conform  with  other  recently-revised  phar- 
macopoeias and  general  chemical  practice. 
As  in  the  previous  edition,  most  of  the  qualitative  tests  and  quan- 
titative methods  are  given  in  full  in  the  Appendix,  and  are  merely 
referred  to  in  the  text  when  necessity  occurs.  It  is  in  connection 
with  volumetric  determinations  that  the  following  prefatory  note  is 
found,  which  gives  an  idea  of  the  character  of  the  knowledge  and 
skill  required  of  a  pharmacist  in  the  British  Empire :  "  Details  of 
procedure  in  these  and  other  chemical  operations  are  now  left  to 
the  skill  and  judgment  of  pharmacists  and  of  analysts  who  are 
assumed  to  be  fully  trained.'' 
In  looking  over  the  prefatory  lists  of  additions  and  deletions  one 
is  struck  by  the  fact  that  of  the  42  substances  which  have  been  added 
to  the  official  list  (a  very  small  number,  considering  that  168'  were 
deleted),  29  are  chemicals,  and  of  these  22,  or  more  than  half  the 
total,  belong  to  the  class  of  organic  chemicals  and  most  of  them  are 
synthetics.  The  detailed  consideration  of  the  chemical  substances 
which  have  been  added  or  changed  is  as  follows : 
Acetone. — This  substance,  which  was  first  made  official  in  the 
U.  S.  P.  VIII  in  our  own  country,  is  now  recognized  and  described. 
It  is  used  as  a  solvent  in  making  liquor  epispasticus,  or  blistering 
liquid,  formerly  made  with  acetic  ether. 
Acetylsalicylic  Acid. — This  is  described  under  the  title  "  Acidum 
Acetylsalicylicum/'  no  mention  being  made  of  aspirin.  The  English 
patent  laws  make  such  independent  recognition  possible,  which  can- 
not be  done  in  the  United  States,  owing  to  the  product  patent. 
Diluted  Hydriodic  Acid  of  10  per  cent,  strength  (same  as  the 
U.  S.  P.)  is  recognized  now  and  is  permitted  to  contain  1  per  cent, 
of  hypophosphorus  acid  for  preservative  purposes. 
Picric  Acid  is  now  recognized,  accompanied  by  the  somewhat 
unfamiliar  (to  us)  synonym  "  carbazotic  acid."  The  rubric  requires 
it  to  be  of  99  per  cent,  purity. 
Adrenalin,  defined  as  "  lawomethylamino-ethanol-catechol,"  is 
described  as  being  obtained  from  the  suprarenal  glands  of  animals 
(species  and  varieties  not  specified),  and  is  an  ingredient  in  liquor 
adrenalini  hydrochloricus,  made  by  dissolving  0.1  per  cent,  adrenalin, 
with  the  aid  of  diluted  hydrochloric  acid,  in  recently-boiled  distilled 
