18S BRITISH AND UNITED STATES PHARMACOPOEIAS. 
work. No alternative of names should be presented in the Ma- 
teria Medica ; and no variation from the fixed name is admis- 
sible, when the substance which it represents is recited as 
an ingredient in a preparation. 
The London Pharmacopoeia of 1836, the last which has 
been published, for exceeds, in neatness and the consisten- 
cy of its different parts, those of Dublin and Edinburgh. 
The Materia Medica contains 267 articles, of which- 37 are 
new. Of the remaining 230 articles, 133 have new names ; 
so that only 97 substances remained with their names un- 
changed upon the last revision. This certainly was a very 
extensive reform in nomenclature, and, with few exceptions, 
for the better. We have discovered but few errors violating 
the unity of the work. No substances are employed in the 
preparations, which do not exist in the c'ficinal catalogue, ex- 
cept the expressed oil of nutmeg, and lettuce (Lactuca), both 
of which have been inadvertently omitted ; although the 
former is an ingredient in the Ernp last rum Picis, and the 
latter is used to make the Extractum Laetucm. In a few in- 
stances the officinal name in the Materia Medica list has not 
been exactly followed in the preparations. Thus we have 
Catechu in the Materia Medica, and Catechu Extractum, 
at page 100 \ Cocci, (Mat. Med.) and Coccus, pages 169 and 
170 j Cornu, (Mat. Med.) and Comua, pages 63 and 113 ; 
Elaterium, (Mat. Med.,) and Elaterii Pepones, page 95 ; 
Gallae, (Mat. Med.) and Galla, pages 172 and 184 ; Nux 
vomica, (Mat. Med.) and Strychnos Nux Vomica, page 
60 ; Piper Cubeba, (Mat. Med.) and Cubeba, page 172 ; 
Saccharum, (Mat. Med.) and Saccharum purificatum, page 
143 ; Sambucus, (Mat. Med.) and Sambuci Flores, page 
66. 
In the Materia Medica, the oils are expressed by Latin names, 
with the word oleum printed last, — in the titles of the prepara- 
tions, with the same word printed first ; and where an oil is 
recited as an ingredient of a preparation, some of them are 
printed, in different places, with the words in both orders. 
Thus Cinnamomi Oleum of the Materia Medica is twice 
