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TO THE TRAΝSLATION of a national Work of this sori great dissiculti osmight and would occur, prejudices and different modes of thought and practice Would probablycreate much differetice of opinion, but non e of these Would be insurmountable to men os senseand science, and I am persuaded that some future age Will see the advantage and eUen necessity of the attempl. The Arrangement of a Pharmacopoeia is arbitrary and of litile importance, such a Work is in faet only a register of those medicines Whicli the Apothecary ought to prepare and keep, and in
Some instances simple alphabetiCal order alone iras been thought susscient. That now adopted has for iis only advantages that it brings together more CloSely similar preparations Under similarhea df, and is more accordant With the chemicat opinions of the present day. The Nomenclature, Whieli is the nexi generalpoint for consideration, is of more ConSequenCe,andit compriges both the subjects of natural history and chemicat composition. With respectio the former, the planis originalty emplοyed by
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PREFACE planis, as Were asterWard S suppoSed to pOSSCSs medicat poWers; and these for the most part were translations of the current nam es by Whicli thoywere known generally. These being onee admit- ted into the Pharmacopoeia, Were retained Without any desinition or certainty, untii the yearl720, when it Was found surther necessary tores er them, for the salie of accuracy, to thestandard systematic Work of that time, and in the odition then published a Correspondent CO-lumn of Synonyms Was conSequently giVenfrom Bauhin's Pinax; the fame Was continue dalso in the Pharmacopoeia of 1745 : but besore
tho publication of that of 1787, the system ofLinnaeus had beoomo ostablislied in generalsuperiority, and the referen ces Were, theressere, then made to his Species Plantarum, but OCCasional deviations from it were sonaetimes admitted, Where more recent authorities Or more accurate observation required them. In his nomenclature Linnaeus had en deavoured to incorporatρ received medicat ternas; biit, Willi respectio articles of soreign production, his informationmas in many instances necessarily defective, such terms theresore Were of CourSe Often mis- applied at first, and have stili continued to beso, uniit at last the established botanical and medicinal nam es have somelimes been found at direct varianoe with each other. AS an eXample, the use of the term cicuta in medicine has
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been Synonymous With a species of the Lin naean genus Conium, and the word Cicuta istased in the fame system to eXpress a disserent genuS. So great an inconvenience the College have now remedied as far as Was in their power,
and with as litile violence as possibi e to thenam es Commonly employed. Under this impression they have thought it most convenientand fully sufficient for the pui pose of distinction, to eXpress each article in generat by a single word; and have retained the former term , Whereuer it a corded, either With the generio orspecific name of Linnaeus. Both of these, however, it has been necessary to employ in those instances where it Was requisite to distinguislibetween two species taken froin the fame genus and both used in pharmacy. In the Pharmacopoeia os l745, the nariae of the part of aptant Where a part only Was taken, Was, in thecatalogue os materia medica, added in the nominative Cage to the name of the plant in thogenitive, and repeated in ali the formulae in whicli that article was employed; in that of1787, the nam e of the plant itself was placedin the nominative case, and that of the partused was separated froni it by a comma, placedin the nominative also, and printed in a disserent character, but Omitted entirely in the subsequent formulae; so that in the boh of the Pharmacopoeia the name of the whole Was used to
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express iis paris, as, ser instance, Senna sor Senna folia. In the sirst specimen, this Same praetice was adopted and farther eXtended froni thespreparation8, to the Catalogiae also, in whichtho officinal name of the plant alone occupied the sirst column ; and the Systematic genericand specific ones, With the part used affixed thereio, formed the seconii column. It was
tion, that this sacrifice of proprie to brevityWas improper ; that no authoi ity existed by whicli the transfer of the nante of the whole plant to one of iis paris could be justified;
and it Was, therei ore, resolved to Use the nam eonly Without any addition, Where the whole plant is used ; and, Where paris are taken, to de- Signate those paris and to incorporate both in the sirst columia, as in the Pharmacopoeia Of1745. In the Domenclature of chemicat substances and compositions, there has been more difficulty
in adopting generat principies, and at the fame time bearing in mirid practical application ; heremay, therei ore, be more grouniis perhaps forobjection to what has been done. The founders of the French chemicat langu age bulli it taponthe basis of their own theory, and willed that the one Ahould be an explanation Os the other. of the masterly manner in Whicli the solandationWas laid, and the superstructure completed, it is
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not necesSary here to Speah, be cause iis generat reception through Europe is a sufficient proos ofiis excelleiace; but perhapS a langlaage, Whenit professes to describe, as Neli as designate iis
pany it; and this eVent may not appear very improbabie, When we contemplate the late gigantic discoveries of Mr. Davy with respect to the al-kalies and eartiis, and the employment of ane vand powerful agent in chemicat decompositions : perhaps, theres Ore, it Would on every account have been beller is a set os arbitra ternis had been at Once invented aud desined, without any connection whatever With thetheory of any particular period. For What is neceSSary to the perfection os di nomenclature tAs by names substances are distinguished fromeach other, their essentiat properties ought to
distinet as not to be liable to mistakes, an dabove ali convey no false ideas of the substancethey are intended to designate, such a nomenclature may be considered as perfeci. The
principie toο of explaining the composition ofa substance by assixing to it a name formed of thOSe Oi iis constituent paris, is too limited in
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whicli is biit a branch of chemistry, has found the necessity of adopting arbitrary term s to designate iis particular subjecis. Ofati these inconveniences the College have felt the fuit force; but
they have finalty judged it proper, for the salie
os uniformity and consistency, in adopting the producis of chemistry, to adopt also iis langvage ; to go farther in this respect than the Pharmacopoeia of l787 had done; and to do
be expressed Mithout a periphrasis, which would render them but ill suiled to the purposes of prescription, or Where the established nameneither contradicted the received doctrines of
hemistry, nor was liable to mistead in iis application. The expression also of the relative pro- portions of the constituent paris of certain salts whicli unite in more than one, by prefix- ing Sub or Super, according to circumStanceS, has been adopted in those cases only in which the compounds of more than One proportion
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are used pharma Celatically; but these ternis
ε the particular substance. V Another deviationfrona chemicat usage has been made in placing
the name of what is called the base of the saltsrst, instead os last in order; this is, perhaps, a tristing circumstanee, and harilly deservignotice, farther than to state, that it has pro- cee led frona caution ruther than si Om any u himsical singularity. In the medicat application of a sali, the base is of primary importari Ce,in which any accidental mistahe would be offar the greatest consequeri Ce in Compotandi ag a medicine; and those who a re used to the subject Keil know the greater value and force of the firSt, over any Subsequent Word, USed for aname, either tapon the label of a botile, or in thoprescription os a physician. In mentioning the probability of mistat es, Ι shali take leave incidental ly to state theimportance of a distinet, fuit, and legibie pre- scription, both to the physician and his patient, and to eXpre88 my opinion iapon the necessityos writing each word at length, rather than torisk iis being misapprehended in the shop, bycontracting it; a practice Whicli Can Save Verylitile time to the prescriber, and may be productive os fatal essecis. It is not necessary to Strengthen this assertion by giving facts of
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actual Occurrenoe; uni ortunately they are toοCOmmon, and might osten be prevented by attending to the circumstance I have mentioned. It will also be found among the alteration S, that tho three former tities of Conseret a, Electuarium, and Confectio, between whicli there has never been any intelligibie disseretice, have uti been consolidaled under one head, Confectio. The term Emtraet also is farther extended, and now includes the articles Which were before called inspissated Iuices, and in one instance
Elaterium), a peculiar substance, Whicli iS pro- perly Foreula. The strict chemicat application of the term Attraci is very limited, and used toeXpreSS Only One Constituent part of what is obtained froni planis by the pharmaceutic processes ; but in their mode of preparation these accord sussiciently to justify the present arrangement Under One head, for each consists of paris separated from planis, Whicli paris are dissolvedin Water, either naturalty present, as in fresti planis, Or purp08ely added to dry ones. Those ternas now srst introduced whicli are draWn stom generat chemistry, are at ready familiar to the greater part of the profession, and willhe eastly understood and retained. There are, itis true, Some Unavoidable eviis connected witha frequent change and diversisy of names ; One
of whicli is, that the great body of practica linformation contained in books, is thereby gradually rendered more and more inaccessible, to
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vice to his profession, than by compiling a Dictionary of Pharmacy and Μateria Medica, whicli might explain the practice and prescrip
tions of the old Writers and Pharmacopoeias, andrender intelligible that great mass of information vlicli is now rendered useless by obscurityos nomenclature and Complexity of form. Under this impression, I have myself made sonae collections toWards such a work, and 8hali probably proce ed with it, as I have time and Opportunity ; but whether I shali ever be able toadvance far enough, to satisfy myself, or to benesit my profession, is matter of great Uncertainty. The necessity sor sonte alteration in thedenominations of me his and Measures has long been apparent, and an attempt has been
made to obviate it in part in the two lastoditions of the Pharmacopoeia, by desining thec q
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menSura.) An arbitrary and more distinctChange has noW been made in the denominatioris of liquid measures, Which may at On Cedistinguisti belween the two, and in Whichthe least possibie violen e has been done tothose ternis Whicli are established by use. It
ever, the legat nationat weighis and measures remalia af they are, the College are bound toadopi them ; and would by no means be justi- sed in creating that sori os confusion whichmust necessarily arise in practice frona the emplo ment of neW Ones, or the reduction Os both
It has further bee Ome necessary that the College should fix sonte rule sor the division os quantities of liquids of less bulk than adrachin, Which was the lowest in their formertable. The customary mode os essecting this by drops is uncertain in iiself, and has been lately rendered stili more so by the introduction into sonae Shops of gla8s meastares, Which