장음표시 사용
31쪽
drachm by measure, be the densi ty of the Γ- quid What it may, whil St, in faet, the sanae bulla of one liquid may require more illan truice the number os drops that another does, evenwhen ea cli is dropped frona the sanae botile; but these s mali quantities a re usualty givensrom solutions of the most active substances in medicine, and their accuracy is proportionablyimportant. Drops are at any rate in AC curate, and influenced by varie ty of CircumstanceS. Meas ures are more uniforna, and innuencedflightly by temperature alone ; the College havetheretare adopted the lalter, and Wish to deprecate the employment of the former in every
In the severat Processes of the PharmaCopoeia, considerable alterations ivili be found toliave been made. Expence in preparationonglit not to be balanced against Correctri essand uniformity; and it is to be lamented that the destre os prosit, and competition os trade, should have led so many chemisis to deviate frona the es tablisbed directions in pseparations sold under the fame names, and used as the Same articies. The College thurefore have felithenaseives obligod to attenti, in Some meaSUre, to this prevat ling and banetat practice, and tota ke aWay ali excuse sor deviation, by not gi 'ing uia necessary trisuble, or Creating Ianneces ry CXpence; they have therofore lookedb 2.
32쪽
the manipulations must Vary sonae vitat accord- ing to the scale ou Whicli the preparations aremade, and Other cirCum Stan Ces of Convenien ceto the operator, and beCause the Pharmacopoeia is intended to direct those Who are at ready, by their education, instructed in the practi eos pharmacy, not as an elementa book toteach the art itself. The apothecary, who is veli educated, will have no distic ut ty in working according to the formulae v hicli are gi ven Iaud great attention has been patu'to render
Those vague and complicated fornas of m dici ne whicli utere received frona the Arabians and Greel f on the revivat os learning, and which so much confused the ancient practice, have been stili more Simplified in the presentedition. Wherice these arose in the sirst instance is uia certain. They probably Weres, unded originalty upon an imperfeci lino v-ledge of the po wers of substances, and the liope that, in the accumulation os many things os similar virtves, the most emcaciotis might he given.
33쪽
contradiction, that no medicine, Compoundedos sive or si X simple articles, has hitherio hadiis poWers eXam ined in a rationat manner. Inans ver to this it may be salit, that there is nonecessi ty for mathematical accuraCy in suoli anen quiry, and that each article need not be examined individually, and in the severat relations in v hicli it may Stand to every separate part of the Compound that We conjecture What Wili bethe esse is of that Compound from our lino v-ledge of the qualities of iis Constituent paris,
stop Θ No bound s Can be set to the agency offuch a principie, When once admitted ; and weshali speedily arrive at compositions os onehundred or more, such as Mithridate and Theriaca have hereto re been. But the argument, that experience has confirmed the use of
complicated fornas, is it be weli founded, is the only one that need be adduced; it is init self suffciently strong. So far, hoWever, is this frona being the faci, that there are not halsa doZen compo unded medicines Which have
edition of the Pharmacopoeia, in Whicli additions io, or subtractions inom, them have notbeen made. Upon an experience So variabie,
34쪽
PREFACE. uchi dependance cannot be placed ; but, in truth, it has not beon Sober experience ; that Saane spirit os speculation and conjecture Whichfirst formed the composition, malles also the Subsequent alterations in it; and the simplificationi of iis instruments is one great proos ofilio improved state of our:science, and Will probably hereas ter be carried to a sint greater CX-tent than it no v is. There are sonae Compo uiads into Whicli certainis quantities of the most active SubStan CeS,such as optum and mercuita, enter; and of illese the relative proportions have in sonae in-8tances been alte red. Whereuer this has been
lone, it has been intended to bring them to aneven proportion, and to render their doses more eastly Calculate i.
With respect to the omissions in the present edition, When compared with the last, it
is omittod ought to have been retain ed. Thereis, perhaps, no objeCtion to an extensive list of lateria Medica, but there a re many to a tri- 1ling and inert one. Even sonae com PouΠd medicines, Whicli consist of fe v articles, and can be bet ter mixed extemporaneously, in proportions sui ted to the circumstanceS of prae lice, have in some instances, on thi S RCCOunt,
, en omitte l. Different fornis of the samoth ing, as the severat animal carbo nates of limo,
35쪽
PREFACE. xxiii lativo been reduced to one. The whole chapter Trochisci has been eXpunged. They are prepared rather by confectioners than apothecaries, and are Chlesy directed by the prejudices of the patient. They rarely malle a partos the prescription os a physician, and forminoreover a most indefinite and uncerta in modeos administering any active mediCine. Although the omissions are numeroUS, theintroductions very nearly Leep pace With them ;and although sonae differetices of opinion may perhaps exist respecting a sexu individual articles, they will be found upon the whole to addeffectualty to the convenience and means of the praCtitioner. Perhaps it may be thought that,
in some instances, there has been too much Caution used in the omission os various articles of modern and respectabie recommendation; andon this head considerable dissiculties have infaci occurre l. There is nothing more fallaci-ous than the judgment and evidence of individuals upon the medicat poWers of substances towhicli they are attached in their oWn practiCe and to judge froin the various monographS Uponsueti subjecis, Which have been published atdifferent linies, it would be belleved that spe- cisic remedies exist for every disease Whicli it is the tot of man to suffer ; and that by the empl0yment of a laW simple articles only, human
36쪽
os iis possessor. The College, While they have felt this dissicut ty, have at the Same time en d avoured to obvia te it for the future, and havelaid me foundation for an effective investiua-
tion of the po vers of those substances Whicli arefrom time to time recommended by individu- ais, by appotia ting a large Committest frona their O n b Ody, of those, Whose publio situ attonsgi ve them the means of en quiry, for this eXPress purpOse, and requiring that their reporis Shail be agreed ii pon by the majori ty, and notconvey the opinion os an individual only. It is there re to be hos ed, that any future additions to the Catalogue m ab .stand upon a si merand more distinet basis than here tofore. The fui ther improve ment of the Pharmacopoeia may also be expected froni a more intimate ac quaintanee with the Characters of those
articles whicli forna the Materia Medica. Tliis information Scarcelyaeoccupies, in the medicat education of the present day, theirank, hichiis importance deman is, anil, Comparati Velyspea in g, may be Considered to be rather u ponthu decline. The College will hereas ter be cn- abled to promoto and extendtithis branch of
knowledge by the liberali ty and public spirit
37쪽
ψs speciniens, which vere be queathod to hi in by the late Dr. BurgES. I ast ly,nas to the language, simplicit y and precision have been looked to rather than elegance of stile, and Celsus and Pliny have been
considereii as ample authorities for the constructionios a modern Pharmacopoeia. Fromany apology, hQWever, for the authorities Whichliave regulated the Latiίity of the body of the Work, the pure anili elegant Preface, Whicli is the composition os the President, may safely be
Having spolien thus at large Upon the composition of the original Work, it Will be comeme to speah briesy of the translation whicli isnow offered to the public. The texi has been
i or it; and fur ther than this, I have Dot in truthbeen anxious as to the langu age in Whicli it is elothed. In the botanical part of the catalogue I have ad ded the ordinary nam es instead os anglici sing the systemati C ones, and for these I have gone to es tablished works, to Smitti's Flora Britannica for those whicli are e produce of our o via Country, and to Martyn's edition of Millei 's Gai dener 's Dictionat for the rem ainder. But as generic and spe- cisio nam es only are gi ven in the Catalogue, and as Wildenhow's edition of the Species Plan-
38쪽
PREFACE.tarum of Limiaeus may Dot be accessit)le in allthose into M hose han is this Work may fall, I have attempted a translation of his essentiat genericand specisio characters also, Whicli, avitii Someo ther particulars, I have thrown into alphabetical order, and ad ded in the Appendix. Thistranslation has been made in Conformi ty, sortite most pari, vitii Professor Marty n's Languageos Bolany Lond. 1807 . In the Dotes to the severat preparations I have put together suchadditional information relative to the subjectas See med to me important to be lino im in theshop of the apothecary. I have, in most in-
sons Which have led to the severat changes madein the texi frona the former Pharmacopoeia. Thismay be imperfectly done, and I must talae theimperfections, such as they are, upon my OWΠhead; in them the College can have no Share, Dorcan'they be blamed for their determinations, is my reasons Shali appear insum cient. I havetat ena large portiori of the me hanical part of the 3vork upon myself, and I have not been absentduring the 3 ole period si ona a single meetingconnected With it; I have arran ged the correspondeiice received during iis progress, and altogether, theresere, may not be vholly inade- quate to the commentary Ι haVe under talicia.
39쪽
attention to the subjeci enabies me to bear ample testimony.
I may be thought by sonae not to lime patit
lue attention, or made sussicient comparative
referetices, to the Edinburgh and Dublin PharmaCopoeia ; a nexu edition of the former of vhicli appeared in I 805, and of the lalter in 1807. This has not arisen frona any Want of respe et Or admiration On my part of the Works alluded to, the merit of Whicli I most readi lyae knowledge; but for the pui pose of auoi lingconfusion, Whicli I have seen happen again and again froni the incorporation of three Pharmacopoeiae into One Work. I have professed tot ranslate the London Pharmacopoeia, uot ei ther the Edinburgh or the Dublin; these may be consul ted in Dr. AndreW Duncan's EdinburghΝeW Dispensatory, though I cannot but Wisti, While I mal e this referetice, that he had giveneaCh separalely, rather than incorporaled them vitii one other; in truth the errors I have
40쪽
PREFACE. mentioned as arising frona this εο urce, give an additional reason in favo ur offitae idea Os a nationat Pharmacopoeia. I have absta ined Domastixing to the severat articles their medicat viriues, or the cases in Whicli they a re more particularly exhibited, be cause directions of this sori are Scarcely With in the province of a Pharmacopoeia, and to be done satisfactori ly, they avouid occupy too much room: I have thought, the refore, that to omit them entire-ly, Was beller than to give them imperfectly For the fame reason I have not gi ven any hi tory or character of the articles in the catalogueos Materia Medica; the works Iravo uid at present recommend to the Student iapon this subjecti are Athin's edition of Lewis's Experimental
aud Murray's Apparatus Medicaminum Gotting. I 776); and is I e ver complete the work towhicli I have be re alluded, a correct descrip tion of the articles of Materia Medica Will forma principat feature in it.
It Will explain.some seeming in accuracies in the referetices to the Pharmacopoeia of I787, ii I mention that successive editions have varie lsonae vitat frona each other, and that uni ortunately they have been confo unded together. The quarto and the sit si duodecimo agree tο-gether; an Octavo was after vards published With alterations, and a duodecimo since Witiu