style of eulogy, but the concurring testimony of numerous invalids who might hang up their votive crutches in the pump-room, in token of ameliorated health, will justify a considerable degree of zeal in such a cause. ART. LVI. A Treatise on Cheltenham Waters and Bilious Diseases. To which are prefixed, Observations on Fluidity, Mineral Waters, and Watering Places. By THOMAS JAMESON, M. D. Member of the Royal College of Physicians of London and Edin burgh, now resident Physician at Cheltenham. IT appears an established custom for a physician, on settling in any popular watering-place, to write a treatise on the spring, a chemical analysis of its water, general observations on bathing, air, exercise, and on all the diseases for which the spring is employed. Fortunately the materials for making a book of this kind are very abundant, and it requires no great exertion of talents or ingenuity to compose from them a treatise like the present. One piece of information however will, we suppose, prove agreeable to the visi tors of Cheltenham, which is, that Dr. Jameson has discovered a new spring similar in properties to the old well, and able to furnish more water than can pos sibly be used by any probable number of visitors. ART. LVII. Experiments and Observations on the Cortex Salicis Latifolie, or Broad Leaved Willow-Bark; illustrated by a coloured Plate. Interspersed with general Observa tions and Remarks on the different Species of the Cinchona, &c.; General History and prom gressive Introduction of the Salix Latifolia; with a Variety of Experiments, tending to elucidate its Properties; illustrated by Cases, demonstrating its superior Efficacy above the Cinchona in various Diseases, more particularly that Branch of the healing Art termed medical Surgery. By G. WILKINSON, Corresponding Member of the Medical Society of London, Licentiate of the Royal College of Surgeons, and Honorary Member of the Chirurgo-Physical Society of Edinburgh, and of the Literary Society of Newcastle-upon Tyne. EVERY attempt to introduce into our materia medica any valuable indigenous vegetable is highly meritorious.The salix alba, though already strongly and moderate heat in an oven, which will facilitate its reduction into a very fine pow der." "FORMULA. Decoction is the best mode of exhibirecommended, has not met with the no- tion. Mr. Wilkinson's prescription is tice which it merits. Mr. James of Hod- the following. desden, and Mr. White of Bath, have both published treatises on its virtues, and the present author adds an useful testimony to its febrifuge properties. He gives the following direction for thering and preserving it. ga "The most proper time of gathering the bark is in May, June, and until the middle of July, as after this period it is found to adhere s firmly to the tree, as not easily to be peeled off, neither does it appear so vigorous or juicy as I have found from experience. It should be cut into pieces not more than five inches in length, and the large thick bark to be one or two inches in breadth. This must be done when green, and then it should be dried in the house, in a place where no sun or fire comes. This renders it convenient and neat for stowage, or packing for carriage, dries it more regularly, and fits it for the mortar, either for decoction or infusion. That of a finer sort to be exhibited in substance, should it not be sufficiently dry for pulverising, may be exposed to a very gradual "R. corticis salicis latifolia sicati Ziss, in pulverem crassum redige, et macera in aque fontane libris duabus per horas sex; deinde coque leni igne per quartam vel tertiam par tem horæ, et cola pro usu. Capiat æger coch learia duo vel tria larga decocti ter vel quater de die: sed febre intermittente, dare opor tet unciam unam aut duas secundâ vel tertia quaque horâ absente paroxysmo. "Of late I have in some cases of dyspepsia, combined with this decoction, a small portion of the lignum quassie, by boiling it with the bark. It may be tinctured more or less strongly with it, according to the intention of the prescriber, and I sometimes add to it a few drops of the tinct, lavend. comp. When thus tinged, it strongly resembles in taste the decoction of cart. perur. This method has also been used by Mr. White. From various experiments, which will hereafter be detailed, I find that the decoction, above all other preparations, whether tincture, cold, or warm infusion, is much stronger, and more fit for medical purposes. I cannot speak from ex bark by the sure test of animal jelly. In this last respect the willow stands very high in power, as indeed had before been proved by Mr. Biggins, in his experiments at Woburn, published about two years ago. It is evident, however, that bitterness is a most important auxiliary to astringency in the cure of diseases, which appears to have very little in common with the power of preserving dead animal fibre, and the salix is really defective, as a medicine, in not possessing any sensible bitterness. It is, however, easily remedied, by adding quassia or gentian, and this new formula deserves a place in every pharmacopoeia pauperum. ART. LVIII. Manuel du Pharmacien, par E. J. B. BOUILLON LA GRANGE, Professeur aux Ecoles Centrales de Paris, & au College de Pharmacie, Sc. St. 8vo. Pp. 439. WHILST other countries in Europe, in which medicine is the most cultivated, produce their own pharmacopoeias every ten or twenty years, it is rather singular that in France a reform, confessedly so much wanted, is so tardy. The last edition of the Paris Codex was printed in 1758, and a great proportion of it, to judge by the nature of its contents, appears at least two centuries older. The author, one of the most enlightened cultivators of pharmacy in Paris, has here attempted a plan of reform in some essential particulars, though encumbered with a heap of antiquated rubbish which he knows not how to get off his shoulders. His preface is modest, and remarkably conciliating to the practitioners in medicine, who in Paris are totally distinct from the pharmacians: "It is well known," he says, "that many prescriptions are antiquated, that new ones have been adopted, and that many which are retained are encumbered with useless substances. But who will pretend from his own authority to sub. tract an iota out of the articles of a compound? Has any one been yet able to apply any theory exactly suited to the action of a great number of preparations? Does any one know what is the result of the enormous mixture of substances which compose the Theriac, for example? Let us therefore respect them as long as they are retained in practice, and whilst we daily see the success with which they are attended." However, as other nations have ventured to lay hands on these reliques of antiquity, and have actually reformed their pharmacopoeias, the author, rather than acknowledge that his countrymen are a little behind-hand in this salutary work, explains it by saying that the foreign practice must needs differ from the French, as neither the climate nor constitution of his countrymen will admit the drastics of Germany, nor the overactive remedies of the English. The work before us, though bulky, contains in fact but a small portion of original matter, full five-sixths of it being a transcript of Beaumé, and the recipés of the Paris Codex. The most original part is (as may be supposed from the fashion of the times, and the well-known labours of M. La Grange) that which describes the pharmaceuticochemical processes, and these are mostly very good and accurate. In fact, they are not original in this place, being taken from the most valuable (French) chemical works, and the former publications of the author. We shall, therefore, slightly run over the contents. The first part of the volume is a pretty full materia medica, which requires no description. The preparations themselves are next described in a useful order, taking first the simple substances, acids, alkalies, and those of the mineral kingdom; the vegetable kingdom follows, and engrosses the greater part of the work, for under decoctions are given all the individual prescriptions in Beaumé for ptisans and drinks of this kind; under alcohols are given all the tinctures, spirituous wat ters, &c.; and the like of the rest. The animal kingdom is described in the same way. The last part is a catalogue of all the medicines, simple and compound, with a short character affixed to each. There is here what we should not have expected to find in a respectable book, the bill of some quack proprietor of a certain American elixir, printed at full length, which seems to rival Dr. Solomon's Balm of Gilead, or Dr. Sibly's Solar Tincture. As a whole, M. La Grange's manual would hardly excite much interest in this country, but some of the observa tions on certain parts of pharmacy shew considerable skill and practice, and it is greatly to be attributed to the multiplicity of articles, and extreme variety of preparations in the French pharmacopaia, that the apothecaries in Paris have been some of the ablest chemists that have ever adorned the science, and have reflected honour on the whole country. Among the more uncommon but useful articles in this collection, we find a description (with a plate) of a sparedrapier, or machine to spread sticking. plasters; and a simple machine to roll and cut pills, which appears to have all the requisite qualifications for suc cess, and we believe is actually used in London in some of the larger apothe caries or druggists' shops. ART. LIX. Pharmacopaia Collegii Regii Medicorum Edinburgensis. WHEN the eighth edition of the Edinburgh Pharmacopeia was published in 1792, it was received with the respectful attention due to the learned body who promulgated it; and as a rational, elegant, and simple code of pharmacy, it has for ten years maintained a distinguished rank over Europe. The public will naturally enquire why, at so short an interval, it has now been thought necessary to introduce a new code, which, in its external aspect at least, differs so materially from that which is already established. A closer examination, however, will shew that the greater part of this difference is only in appearance; the real acquisitions to pharmacy have been but few during this period; and it is chiefly in nomenclature that the present edition requires our attention. However, as the " denuo limatam auctamque" is something more than a mere form of speech, we shall first very briefly point out the omissions and additions that strike us, and the improvements in the pharmaceutical processes. college seem to have acted on this prin ciple, otherwise we might think that they were sifting too close and throwing away good grain with the chaff, when they rejected such articles as the absenthium, arum, ásárum, curcuma, ginseng, oxalis acetosella, thymus-serpyllum, and a few others of equal claims. The fate of the lichen islandicus is a little singular; in the edition of 1792 it was retained, in the present it is expunged; and, if it continues in fashion so long, in some future edition ten years hence, it must pe tition for readmittance, on the testimony of one or two entire pamphlets that have been written in its favour. The materia medica has undergone a further expurgation, and many articles of doubtful value or difficult to be proved, are expunged. When a pharmacopaia is considered, as it ought to be, simply as a direction to the apothecary what articles he is to keep in his shop, and how he is to compound them, a very great simplicity may be allowed of, and nothing should be admitted but what the physician may reasonably expect to meet with, not in every country village indeed, but in all towns where pharmacy is on a respectable footing. The Unless we have looked over the catalogue too hastily, we find no additions to the materia medica ; nor are any mentioned in the preface. The pharmaceutical part remains nearly the same, except with some small variations in the chemical processes. Among the sales and salina, the radical vinegar is very properly introduced, the process is that of (we believe) a M. Badolier, a French chemist, distilling the sulphate of iron with the acetite of lead: the nitrous acid is made with a greater portion of sulphuric acid, which prevents the fusion of the glass retort; the nitric acid is new, the supercarbonated potash and soda, and the hydro-sulphuret of ammonia are very important additions, the muriats of ba rytes and of lime less so, but certainly deserve their place. The only addition that we can find to the metallic preparations is, the preci pitated carbonate of iron: some varia tions occur in the preparation of one r two of the mercurials, the tartar emetic, &c. but none of any great importance. For the sake of uniformity, we suppose, the indications of the perfect cau sticity of potash have been omitted; it would have been equally uniform, and a very valuable addition, if a few directions had been added to each recipe to ascertain the purity of the preparation by chemical tests. As we do not pretend to give an accurate comparison of the old and new editions, many smaller alterations and improvements may have escaped our notice; but, on the whole, they are certainly few, and from the specimen before us, we may fairly conclude that they are real improvements. From the great and increasing consumption of the artificial mineral waters, these valuable preparations, which are strictly pharmaceutical, and in no degree concealed by empiricism, might perhaps have deserved some notice. Was it an oversight to omit prescribing the use of Woulfe's apparatus, in making the caustic ammonia, or is the distillation of the water from the alkaline materials the method actually employed? The change of nomenclature, as we have before mentioned, is very extensive, for, besides smaller corrections, all the terms of the chemical preparations have been reformed from the new nomenclature, latinized, as in Dr. Pearson's tables; and all the appellations of the vegetable materia medica have received the Linnean or approved systematic names. On the former class the following very candid and temperate observations are given in the preface. "Gravior autem labor nos haud parum moratus est, in describendis variis præpa ratis & compositis quæ inter medicamenta recensentur. Hæc omnia propositum fuit iis solis nominibus definire quæ jam apud optimos hujus sæculi chemicos invaluerunt. Horum sermo novus & quasi proprius, etsi nondum omnibus suis numeris & partibus absolutus, tamen ad scientiæ usus videtur accommodatissimus, et adeo necessarius, ut non dubitemus eum, ut jam a junioribus receptus est, ita ab omnibus medicis & medicamentariis brevi receptum iri. Horum sermo in re medicamentariâ olim receptus, non alius erat quam vetus chemicus: igitur, ut nobis videtur, æquum est eum medicinâ exulare qui jam in chemia prorsus obsolevit." The merits and defects of the modern chemical nomenclature have long been before the public, its value is generally acknowledged, and the elegant simpli city and facility of acquirement have deservedly rendered it the vernacular tongue of chemists in every part of Europe. The principle of including a definition in every term, has however made it, in many parts, cumbersome and verbose, and we must say, that in the present instance, examples of this defect are occasionally occurring, notwithstanding the pains which, we are told in the preface, are taken to avoid it. Was there no other way of informing the physician or apothecary how the crocus of antimony is made, than by compelling him to call it, the oxidum antimonii cum sulphure per nitratem potassa: or litharge, the oxidum plumbi semivitreum? We have however another, and, we think, a weightier objection to urge against the unlimited use of the present nomenclature. As long as medicines are prepared from the written prescriptions of physicians, the errors that attend various, and often hasty writings, must be taken into account; and the consequence of these errors will be, not a failure in some chemical experiment, the waste of a few ounces of acid or alkali, and a few hours or days' labour, but perhaps a violent disease produced on a fellow-creature already suffering; perhaps, even a sudden and painful death; and to the prescriber, an unmerited loss of reputation, and incalculable anxiety. Therefore it is, that the names given to powerful medicines should be as clear, precise, and distinct as possible, similar to no other, and religiously preserved to that and to no other preparation. These dangers are not imaginary; we know a valuable life nearly sacrificed to the unfortunate resemblance between nitrum and natron; we know an only child destroyed by an unhappy error of the sign for ounce instead of that for dram; we could procure well authenticated instances of calamitous accidents arising from the similarity between tinctura opii and tinctura opii camphorata; hydrargyrus muriatus, and hydrargyrus; muriatus mitis acidum vitriolicum, and acidum vitriolicum dilutum, and other such unfortunate specimens of illjudging adherence to systematic reform. Could not the same prudent caution which prescribed an uniformity in weighing drargyri, when the same quantity of and measuring medicines, have made the written signs of those measures somewhat less liable to mistake? How could the superintending care of the college expunge the familiar term calomel, and allow it to differ only by a small particle from the equally unpractised name given to corrosive sublimate? What practitioner will not tremble to order for an infant two grains of the sub-murias the murias hydrargyri will produce inevi table destruction in the severest agonies. We therefore still think a reform is wanting in a few essential points; and we should hope that the system of secu rity will in time come to be considered as the leading principle in an art in which the preservation of human life is so deeply interested. ART. LX. Researches into the Properties of Spring Water; with Medical Cautions (illustrated by Cases), against the Use of Lead in the Construction of Pumps, WaterPipes, Cisterns, &c. By WILLIAM LAMBE, M. D. late Fellow of St. John's Cel lege, Cambridge. 8vo. pp. 204. THIS treatise is dedicated with peculiar propriety to Sir G. Baker, whose valuable paper on the same subject long ago directed the public attention to the baneful effects of the poison of lead, introduced slowly and insidiously into the system, by forming a part of a common daily beverage. Dr. Lambe pursues the subject much farther, and his assertions, if well founded, would lead us to suspect almost every liquid article of diet which has been prepared by water that has ever been in contact with lead in any form. Two points therefore are to be made out, the one the existence of lead in all common waters, as generally employed; the other, a just discrimination of the symptoms which may fairly be supposed to arise from this poison. The author first considers the latter of these. It is evident that the proof required of a very extensive use of poisoned water will be, to discover some disease equally extensive, the progress of which bears an exact ratio with the prevalence of the morbid cause. Individual cases will not suffice, nor will it be enough to alledge peculiar susceptibility of constitution, if the supposed morbid symptoms can only be very partially detected; the analogy of all other metallic poisons or medicines, points out so great an uniformity in their operation on the human body, that there is no reason to suppose it would fail in this instance. The following is a case in point. "However minute may be the quantity of noxious matter taken up by most waters, I am persuaded, that in most cases it is enough to have a sensible influence on tender and delicate habits. As far as I can conjecture by the appearance with precipitants, there are very few waters more pure in them selves, than those of the Priory pools, which supply the water-works of the town of War- ladies may understood. "The great minuteness of the dose is in part compensated by the very abundant use which is made of the vehicle of the poison. Besides drinking it pure, we use it hourly in our tea and coffee, in our beer and out domestic wines. It enters into our bread, and many of the preparations used at our tables. It were idle to enumerate all the ways in which we are constantly receiving it. When we employ water in our kitchens for boiling our food, a portion adheres to, and is probably absorbed by the meat, and by the vegetables, in abundance." If the whole town of Warwick had for many years been receiving this slow poison, could the author have found only three young ladies as sufferers from its ravages? The application of the author's hy pothesis to this metropolis is still more vague. |