Observations on medical weights and measures.

  • Wilson, Charles.
Date:
[1859?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on medical weights and measures. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    an inheritance from the uses in medicine of the Greeks and Romans and because the ancient Roman ounce was almost the exact equivalent of the present avoirdupois ounce. There was, therefore, an evident warrant for its employment here of a different kind from that which had led to the adoption of the troy standard ; and there liad thus been already an inconsistency introduced, yet really at first in relation to the solids, into what ought to have been the single fundamental basis of oui' weights and measures in pharmacy. It was thus, in every sense, a step of the description we have indicated, when the avoirdu- pois standard became explicitly recognised by the London College, as well as apparently more accurately defined, as that upon which the fluid measures of the Pharmacopoeia rested. ^ AVithin three years afterwards, when the Royal College of Physi- cians of Edinburgh next issued an edition of its Pharmacopoeia, it followed the English College in adopting the imperial standard of measure. This was the more to be regarded as a concession to the prevailing usages of the times, that the Scottish College, in con- sideration of the errors which it held as prone to arise from a promiscuous use of weights and measures, had for long directed that the quantity of every fluid, as well as solid, should be determined by weight solely, adhering scrupulously to the troy standard with re- ference to both. But the concession was still more marked, when it added its further, and now wholly explicit, declaration,^ that it could not admit the force of the objections which had hitherto prevented the introduction also of the imperial or avoirdupois system of weights into the practice of medicine and pharmacy. The like views, as to the expediency of throwing aside the troy weights, and of resorting exclusively, and for all purposes, to the avoirdupois standard, were afterwards supported by Dr Christison, with his usual solidity of reasoning, in the valuable work already referred to. The Dublin College of Physicians was not without warrant, therefore, when, forsaking its own system of measures, which had besides certain peculiar discrepancies from those of the other divisions of- the coun- try, it not only joined the other Colleges in the acceptance of the imperial measures, but took another and still more decided step in advance; and,^ reiterating the often urged complaint, not less justly grounded in Ireland than elsewhere, of the frequent errors and in- conveniences caused by the existing medley, determined that the avoirdupois pound and ounce, associated with a cori'esponding drachm and scruple, yet retaining the troy grain, should be hence- forward the rule within its jurisdiction. The change thus insti- tuted, however, even had it met with a more general acceptance, continued still insufficient to remove the whole of the causes of complaint; and it was manifest that something more remained yet to be effected, as well for the credit of science, as for the convenience of art, and for the public safety. 1 Edinhurgh Pharmacopoeia, 1839, Preface, p. xii. 2 Dublin Pharmacopoeia, 1850, Preface, p. xxii.