TITRATED  SOLUTIONS  OF  OPIUM. 
141 
which  could  then  be  powdered  and  tested ;  and  in  this  way  uni- 
formity could  be  obtained,  by  one  or  two  tests,  for  an  entire  year. 
In  regard  to  the  liquor  opii  comp.,  Squibb,  I  should  be  with 
the  framers  of  our  Pharmacopoeia, — i.  e.,  regard  it  rather  in  the 
light  of  an  extemporaneous  prescription  than  a  formula  proper  • 
for  the  officinal  list.  It  may  be  well  to  suggest  a  corrigent  to 
physicians,  and  Dr.  Squibb  truly  says,  physicians  might  take 
counsel  in  this  direction  occasionally  to  advantage but  it  is 
doubtful  whether  so  active  an  addition  ought  to  be  made  for 
general  purposes,  and  by  the  addition  of  alcohol,  which  must  be 
made  to  hold  the  chloroform  and  ether,  the  watery  solution  of 
opium  which  the  Pharmacopoeia  intends  is  entirely  lost  sight  of. 
Besides,  the  nature  of  ether  and  chloroform  is  such  that  the 
latter  half  of  a  IHb  bottle,  unless  used  in  large  quantities,  would 
probably  contain  little  or  none,  or  at  least,  as  Dr.  Squibb  him- 
self states,  an  indefinite  quantity  ;  and  if  this  combination  is  not 
always  desirable, — and  this  ought  to  be  left  to  the  judgment  of 
the  physician, — then  the  liq.  opii  comp.  cannot  displace  or  re- 
place the  tinctura  opii  deodorata  of  our  present  Pharmacopoeia. 
In  Europe  the  tendency  now  is  to  simplify  the  Pharmacopoeias, 
and  establish  a  uniformity,  abolishing  complex  formulas.  This 
is  instanced  by  the  consolidation  of  the  Dublin,  London  and 
Edinburgh  Pharmacoposias,  also  the  final  adoption  of  a  Pharma- 
copoeia Germanise ;  further,  a  pressure  to  adopt  universally  the 
French  system  of  weights  and  measures.    A  similar  inclination 
should  get  a  footing  here,  and  I  am  sure  Dr.  Squibb  is  the  last 
man  to  impede  the  wheel  of  progress.  A  multiplicity  of  formulas 
may  work  confusion.    We  have  now  an  old  compd.  liq.  opii,  a 
new  compd.  liq.  opii,  and  a  eompd.  tinct.  opium  according  to  Dr. 
Squibb.    Such  formulas  may  be  convenient  to  some, — supplying, 
as  it  is  called  in  Germany,  a  pons  asinorum, — but  most  physicians 
prefer  to  make  their  own  prescriptions,  though  we  have  one  doctor 
here  who  prescribes  Dr.  Squibb's  liquor  opii  oomp.  in  quantities 
•of  six  ounces,  without  regard  to  the  admonition  of  Dr.  Squibb 
himself,    that  the  greatest  skill  in  using  such  preparations  (if 
they  are  not  to  become  hobbies)  is  to  know  when  not  to  use  them." 
This  same  practitioner  prescribes  Wright's  Vegetable  Pills,  Mare- 
trisi's  Catholicon,  and  Smith's  Wild  Cherry  Cough  Balsam." 
Covington,  Ky.,  Feb,  9th,  1870. 
