The American Medical Association and the United States pharmacopoeia / a reprint of the pamphlets of H.C. Wood, Alfred B. Taylor, the Philadelphia County Medical Society, and the National College of Pharmacy ; with a rejoinder addressed to the professions of medicine and pharmacy of the United States, by Edward R. Squibb.

  • E. R. Squibb
Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The American Medical Association and the United States pharmacopoeia / a reprint of the pamphlets of H.C. Wood, Alfred B. Taylor, the Philadelphia County Medical Society, and the National College of Pharmacy ; with a rejoinder addressed to the professions of medicine and pharmacy of the United States, by Edward R. Squibb. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    90/159 (page 90)
    The above estimates of grains in the third column assume the specific gravi- ties c^iven in the si cond column. Ilavini,'got the formula into this form, what shall we do with it ? Evidently we must simjilifv the numlK-rs us in the fourth column ; but as we have fractions here, a further stcji is nece.*ji;iry to give us the nearest whole nutnbers as in the fifth and laj<t column. It is true that tlus last result is only an ai)pro.\imation to the original formula ; but the difference in this case is not particularly important. Supposing, then, the last column (or any other approximation that may \ms preferred) to represent the improved fommla in parU by weight. The merit of these parts is that they may equally well rqiresent any units of weight. Let us call them grammes, then the whole quantity will be 1000 grammes, or 1 kilo-granmie: equal to 32^ troyounces, or Ibii ; viii Troy. (2 lbs. 3 oz. (jr.) nearly the quantity of the original formula. But the aixithecary would doubt- less prefer to just fill his quart bottle, as he has been accustomed to do by the old formula. Now, it is (piite evident that to convert this pnxluct of the new formula, 1 kilo-grannnc, into 1 quart will really involve a tmublesome calcula- tion ; and it will aiiain require an approximation. If the new parts by weight be counted as gniins, the problem will not be much simplified. Wear- ied by the constant labor of calculation or reduction from abstract parts, on every occasion of em|)loying this improved and universal formula. the drug- gist will doubtless note down in the margin of his Phanuaeoptria ( once for all) the actual weights or quantities which he has found it convenient to adopt. Would it not be bette r, simpler and leiss hazardous of error if, in addition to the notation of parts by weight, the actual specitic weight of each ingredient were to be offlcinnlly stated ? It is quite evident that this whole q\iestion con- cerns the jihannacist much more vitally than it can the physician—an added reason why the Pl)armaco])(eia should not (and cannot properly) be jilaced under the exclusive control and fully-recognized leadership of The American Medical Association. We trust that this single illustration (a comparatively simple one) of the prac- tical labor and difllciilty investing the new departure, will in the minds of the thoughtful, (not too pre-occupied with a theoretic enthusiasm^ serve partially to extenuate the delin(iuency of the executive Connnittee in having, in the con- demnatory language of tlie prosecution, r(/(M(Yf[:] to carry out the in.struc- tions of the Convention. (p. 5.) Upon the reflective there may dawn some gleam of sympatliy with the dismay nafurallj- felt by the Connnittee on being confronted with the foriuidalile task which had somewhat inconsiderately been imposed upon it. The .able, conscientious, and esteemed President of the Con- vention, and chairman of the Revision Connnittee, is no longer with us to jti.s- tif^' the course he felt ohliged to recommend and to urge under these harra.ssing conditions; but the more sacred becomes the duty of those who knew the man, to shield his memory from any .suggestion of wilfulness, indifference, or want of fidelity to the high trust committed to his charge. The professional employment of medicines involvi's three successive stages or proce.sses, each by a different agent. First, the prrncrijytion of the remedy by the physician; second, thr (fijip<'iii»ifif>n of the compounded materials hy the pharmaci.st; and third, the adminixtration- of the prep;\n'd medicine by the attendant nurse, or occasionally hy the iiatient. In the first two of these opera- tions there is no serious dillicully in the exclusive use of gravimetric apportion- meiii ; Init, in the tiual step, the ditfiLculty of adunuLatering liquid doses by