The pharmacopoeia of the United States of America / by authority of the National Convention for Revising the Pharmacopoeia, held at Washington, A.D. 1860.

Date:
1864
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The pharmacopoeia of the United States of America / by authority of the National Convention for Revising the Pharmacopoeia, held at Washington, A.D. 1860. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    recognised, will give a precision to the prescriptions of physicians which has usually been wanting, and relieve the apothecary from the embarrassment, felt on many occasions, of making the choice. Improvements have also been made in adopting the division of Orange Peel into the bitter and sweet, and of Mustard into the white and black. The cases of the consolidation of two names into one are also clearly shown in this Table. It is highly im- portant that the new Latin officinal names should be well under- stood ; and that the old names should be constantly presented to the eye of the reader in connexion with the new ones. Ac- cordingly, in the list of the Materia Medica, and in the titles of the several formulas, the Latin names of the Pharmacopoeia of 1850 have been invariably subjoined to the new names, as was done in the last Pharmacopoeia. The changes in the English officinal names have not been tabulated. In many cases the Committee adopted the Latin officinal names as the English ones. Examples of Latin names, used as English, are Angustura, Arnicaf Calamus, Capsicum, Cimicifuga, Cinchona, Digitalis, Dracontium, Gaultheria, Sab- batia, Serpentaria, Spigelia, and Stillingia. By these substi- tutions a number of undesirable English names are got rid of, among which are Leopard's-bane, Sweet Flag, Cayenne Pepper, Skunk Cabbage, Partridge-berry, American Centaury, and Queers-root. In carrying out the same plan of nomenclature, thirteen English officinal names of medicines, introduced into the Materia Medica list, have been made the same as the Latin names. Other changes in the English nomenclature are Can- tharides for Spanish Flies, Elder for Elder Flowers, Pale Rose for Hundred-leaved Poses, and Safflower for Dyers' Saffron. Changes of minor importance have been made in the English