466 
Pharmaceutical  Preparations. 
/Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
1     October,  1905. 
A  work  published  in  1542  by  Brother  Bernardino  Laredo,  at  the 
convent  of  Valverde  near  Seville,  gives  some  insight  into  the  nature 
of  pharmaceutical  preparations  popular  at  that  time.  He  describes 
the  medicines  in  use  at  that  period  as  laxatives,  pills,  powders, 
troches,  narcotics,  syrups,  oils,  decoctions,  ointments,  salves,  plas- 
ters, confections  and  conserves. 
With  the  appliances  or  apparatus  limited  and  crude,  it  is  remark- 
able to  observe  the  list  of  products  manufactured  by  the  pharmacist 
at  that  period. 
The  theriaca  of  to-day  is  but  one  example  of  the  forms  of  medi- 
cation in  use  in  Ancient  Rome.  The  confection  of  opium,  recognized 
in  some  of  the  European  pharmacopoeias,  is  simply  a  substitute  for 
the  exceedingly  complex  and  unscientific  electuary  known  as 
theriaca  or  mithridate,  invented  by  Andromachus,  the  head  physi- 
cian of  Nero,  a  position  which,  no  doubt,  demanded  a  great  deal  of 
skill  and  genius.  This  celebrated  electuary  has  been  handed  down 
to  us  through  eighteen  centuries.  Andromachus  is  said  to  have 
introduced  it  as  an  improvement  on  the,  at  that  time,  famous  mith- 
ridate. While  the  composition  of  the  two  electuaries  were  about 
the  same,  theriaca  contained  vipers'  flesh  and  other  less  active  ingre- 
dients, principally  aromatics,  constituting  in  all  about  sixty  in 
number.  The  active  ingredient  would  appear  to  have  been  opium, 
about  I  per  cent.,  but  its  popularity  in  those  days  of  degenerate 
Rome  was  supposed  to  be  as  a  preventive  and  antidote  for  poisoning. 
The  fact  of  its  containing  a  great  many  choice  drugs  made  it  im- 
possible for  it  to  be  manufactured  outside  of  the  great  trade  centers 
of  Italy.  It  was  manufactured  in  Venice  during  the  week  of  the 
great  annual  fair,  the  yearly  gathering  for  business  and  pleasure. 
During  the  first  half  of  the  last  century,  the  pharmacist  of  this 
country  manufactured  all  his  galenicals,  and  purchased  his  mineral 
acids,  also  the  organic  acids  such  as  tartaric,  citric,  oxalic  and  ben. 
zoic  and  the  principal  heavy  chemicals  in  use  at  that  time. 
The  introduction  of  a  limited  number  of  fluid  extracts  into  the 
pharmacopoeia  of  1850  marks  the  beginning  of  a  period  notable  in 
the  history  of  pharmaceutical  manufacture  in  this  country,  inasmuch 
as  this  class  of  preparations  of  American  origin  has  become  thor- 
oughly popular  and  the  number  increased  in  subsequent  revisions  of 
the  United  States  Pharmacopoeia,  so  that  it  embraces  eighty-eight 
official  fluid  extracts  in  the  revision  of  1890,  besides  those  recog- 
