장음표시 사용
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drachm by meastare, be the density of the liquid What it may, whilsi, in faci, the samo bulli os one liquid may require more than twiCOthe number os drops that another does, eVelawhen eaeli is droppud froin the fame botile; but these s mali quantities are Usualty givens rom solutions of the most active substances in medicine, and their accuracy is proportionalilyimportant. Drops are at any rate inaccurato, and influenced by variety of Circumstan COS. MERSures are more uniforna, and influoncedflightly by temperature alone ; the College havetheres re adopted the lalter, and wish to deprecate the employment of the former in every
In the severat Processes of the PharmaCO- Pinia, Considerable alterations will be found toliave been made. EXpence in preparationought not to be balanced against Correcinessand uniformity ; and it is to be lamented that the destre os prosit, and competition of trade, should have led so many hemisis to deviates rom the established directions in preparations sold under the fame nam es, and Used as thesame articies. The College therei ore have felitheniselves obliged to attend, in some meaSUre, to this prevalling and banes ut practice, and totake away ali excuse for deviation, by not giving unne Ce88ary trouble, Or Creating UnneCC8Nary eXpence; they have theresore lookod
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PREFACEchiefly to uniformi ty of Strength, and ConSequent precision in the esseCts of medicines, ra-ther than to that degree of purity which wouldbe required in the preparation os chemicat tests. Their directions are given generali ν, be Cal Sethe manipulatioris must vary fomeWhat aCCOrd ing to the scale on whicli the preparationS are made, and other Circumstances of Convenien e to the operator, and because the PharmaCopoeia is intended to direct those Who are ali eady, by their education, instructed in the practice of pharmaCy, not as an elementary book toteach the art itself. The apothecary, Who is weli educateii, will have no difficulty in working according to the formulse Whicli are given ;and great attention has been pald to render
Those vagiae and complicated fornis of medicine which were received froni the Arabians and Greelis On the revivat os learning, and which so much confused the ancient practice, have been stili more simplised in the presentedition. Whence these arose in the sirst in- Stanee is uncertain. They probably Weres unded originalty upon an imperfect knowledge of the powers of substances, and the liope that, in the accumulation os many things of similar virtves, the most emcactous might be given
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out sear of contradiction, that no mediCine, compotanded os sive or 8iX Simple articles, has hitherio had iis powers examine d in a rationalmanner. In an Swer to this it may be said, that there is no necessity for mathematical accuracyin sueti an en quiry, and that eaeli article need not be examined individually, and in the severat relations in whicli it may stand to eVery Separate part of the compotand; that we conjecture What will bo the effecis of that compotand fromour linowledge of the qualities of iis constituent paris, and that eXperience asterwards examines and confirms their use. ΝοW, is we are tobegin conjecturing as to the effecis of three
one hundred ingredients or more, suci, as Μithridate and Theriaca have heretos ore been. But, the argument, that eXperietice has confirmed the use of complicated fornas, is it boweli 1 unded, is the only one that need beadducod; it is in iiself sufficiently strong. Sofar, however, is this frona being the faci , that
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ence so variabie, much dependan e cannot hepta ced; bus, in truth, it has not been sobereXperien Ce ; that fame spirit os spe Culation and conjecture whicli si si s Ormed the composition, mali es also the subsequent alterations in it; and the simplification os iis instruments is one great proos of the improved state of Our scien Ce, and
will probably hereas ter bo carried to a stillgreater eXtent even than it no w is. There are some Compo unds intO Whieli certain quantities of the most actiVe SubStan Ces, Such as Opium and merCury, enter; and of thesethe relative proportions have in a few instances been altered. Whereuer this has been done, ithas been intended to bring them to an eVen proportion, and to render their dOSes more east lycalculate i.
With respect to the omissioris in the presente dition, When compared with the last, it willhard ly be thought that any article Whicli is omit-
ted ought to have been retain ed. There is, per-haps, no objection to an e Xtensive list of Μateria Medica, but there are many to a tristingand inert one. EVen sonae Compoland medicines, whieli consist os few arti Cles, and can bebeiter miXed eXtemporaneo u8ly, in proportionssuited to the circumstances of praCtice, have in Some instances, On this ac Count been Omitte d. Disserent fornas of the fame thing, as the Se-
vexat animal carbonates of lime, have been re-
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To THE TRANSLATIO N. xxiii dueen to one. The whole chapter of Trochiscitias been eXpunged, becauSe they are prepare drather by confectioners than apotheCaries, andare chiefly directed by the prejudices of tho patient; they rarely malle a part of the prehcription os a physician, and form moreΟVer amost indefinite and uncertain mode os administering any active medicine. Although the omissioris are numerous, theintroductions very nearly keep pace With them ;and although sonte dissere iaces of opinion may perhaps eXist respecting a few individual arti cles, they will be found upon the whole to addesse tu alty to the convenien Ce and means of the practitioner. Perhaps it may be thought that,
in sonae instances, there has been too much caution used in the omission of Variolis articles of modern and respectabie recommendation;
and on this head considerable dissiculties havo in faci occurre l. There is nothing more fallaci us than the judgment and eviden ce of individuals upon the medicat powers of substancesto whicli they are attached in their own praC-tice ; and to judge froni the variotis monographstipon 8UCh subjecis, which have been publis hodat disserent times, it would bd belloved that specise remedies eXist for e very disease Whichit is the tot of man to suffer; and that by the emptorment of a se W simple articles Only, hu-
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PREFACEman life might be prolonged according to the will of iis possessor. The College, while theyhave folt this difficulty, have at the fame timeendeavoured to obviate it for the future, and havo laid the foundation for an effective investigation of the poWers of those substances Whichare froni time to time recommended by individuals, by appotnting a large Committee fronatheir own body, of those whose public siluations give them the means of enquiry, for this eXpreSSpurpoSe, and requiring that their reporis sit alibe agreed upon by the majority, and not Convey the opinion os an individual only. It is theres ore to be hoped, that any future additioristo the catalogiae may stand tapon a firmer and more distinct basis than heretosore. The further improvenient of the PharmaCO-poeia may also be eXpected from a more intimate acquaintance With the Characters of those articles
ledge by the liberality and public spirit of Μr.
Brande, who has very lately presented to themthe unique and extensive Collection os speci-
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Considered as ample authorities for the construction Os a modern ΡharmaCOpoeta. Fromany apology, hoWever, for the authorities whichliave regulated the Latini ty of the body of the Work, the pure and elegant Preface, whicli is the composition of the President, may 8asely
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PREFACEbe aCCessibie to ali those into whose han is this Work may fall, I have attempted a tranStation of his essentiat generie and specisae Characters also, WhiCh, with Some other particulars, I have thrown into alphabetical order, and added in the Appendix. This translationhns been made in consorini ty, for the in Ostpari, with Professor Martyn's Language of Botany Lond. I 807). In the notes whicli are subjoined in a sua alter Character to the severat preparations, I have put together suci, additionalin formation relative to the subjeci as seemed tome important to be known in the shop of the apothecary. I have, in most instanCOS, en dea-voured also to state the Chios reasons whichliave led to the severat changes made in thetexi froni the Pharmacopoeia. This may be imperfectly done, and I must talio the imperfections, Such aS they are, Iapon my OWn head;
thoy be blamed for their determinations, is my
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the Pharmacopoeia of 1787, 1745, and l720, distinguishing those articles of the last Pharmacopoeia, and of that only When they disseredfroin the present one in preparation, by printingiliem in a disserent character. The Chemicat authorio to whicli I have chiefly had reCourse, and whicli I ought, theres ore, to aCknoMedge, is the third edition of Thomson's System ofChemistry Edin. 1807), to the accuracy and excellen e of whicli a good deal os attention
due attention, or made sum cient Comparative
referetices, to the Edinburgh and Dublin PharmaCopoeia ; a neW edition of the former of whicli appeared in l8O5, and of the lalter in I 807. This has not arisen frona any Want of respect Or admiration On my part of the wortis alluded to, the merit of Whicli I most rea diluacknowledge; but for the purpose of avoidingconfusion, Whicli I have seen happen again and again froni the incorporation of three Pharmacopoeias into one Work. I have professed totranslate the London Pharmacopoeia, not ei thertho Edilaburgh or the Dublin; these may buconsulted in Dr. AndreW Duncans EdilaburghΝe v Dispensatory, though I cannot but Wish, while I malle this referetice, that he had giveneach Separat ely, rather than incorporaled them
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xxviii PREFACEwith one another; in truth the errors I have
mentione d as arising from this 8ource, give an additional reason in favour of the idea os anationat Pharmacopoeia. I have abstained frontamiXing to the severat articles their medicat via lues, or the Cases in Whieli they are more particularly exhibited, because directions of this sori are scareely With in the province of aΡharmaCopoeia, and to be done satisfactorily, they Would occupy tuo much rOOm: I have thought, theres ore, that to omit them entirely, was beller than to give them impersectiy. Forthe sanae reason I haVe not giVen any historyor Character of the articles in the catalogue ofΜateria Medica; the wortis I Would at presentrecommend to the student upon this subjeci,are Athin's edition of Lewis's Experimental
I have besore alluded, a Correet description of the articles of blateria Medica wili form a principat feature in it. It will explain sonae seeming inaccuracies in the referen Ces to the Pharmacopoeia of 1787, is I mention that successive editions have varied somewhat frona each other, and that Unfortunately they haVe been consolandest together. The quarto and the first duodecimo agree tO-gether; an Octavo Was afterwards published