Copy 1

Pharmacologia; comprehending the art of prescribing upon fixed and scientific principles; together with the history of medicinal substances / By J.A. Paris.

  • Paris, John Ayrton, 1785-1856.
Date:
1833
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Pharmacologia; comprehending the art of prescribing upon fixed and scientific principles; together with the history of medicinal substances / By J.A. Paris. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    16/802 (page 10)
    always referred, although it will be perceived that I have fre- quently availed myself of the resources with which the pharma- copoeias of Edinburgh and Dublin abound. To a knowledge of the numerous adulterations to which each article is so shamefully exposed, too much importance can be scarcely attached; and under this palpable source of medicinal fallacy and failure, may be fairly included those secret and illegitimate deviations from the acknowledged modes of preparation, as laid down in the pharma- copoeia, whether practised as expedients to obtain a lucrative notoriety, or from a conceit of their being improvements upon the ordinary processes; for instance, we have heard of a wholesale chemist who professes to supply a syrup of roses of very superior beauty, and who for this purpose substitutes the petals of the red (rosa gallica) for those of the damask rose (rosa centifolia); we need not be told, that a preparation of a more exquisite colour may be thus afforded, but allow me to ask if this wnderhanded substitution be not a manifest act of injustice to the medical prac- titioner, who instead of a laxative syrup, receives one which is marked by the opposite character of astringency. These obser- vations will not apply, of course, to those articles which are avowedly prepared by a new process ; for in that case the practi- tioner is enabled to make his election, and either to adopt or re- fuse them at his discretion. Thus has Mr. Barry applied his ingenious patent apparatus for boiling in vacuo, to the purpose of making Extracts; we might have said a priori, that the results must be more active than those obtained in the ordinary way, and experience has sanctioned the conclusion. As a brief notice of the most notorious Quack Medicines may be acceptable, the for- mule for their preparation have been appended in notes, each being placed at the foot of the particular article which constitutes its prominent ingredient ; indeed it is essential that the ‘practi- tioner should be acquainted with their composition, for although he would refuse to superintend the operation of a boasted panacea, it is but too probable that he may be called upon to counteract its baleful influence. The Historical Introduction, comprehending the substance of the lectures delivered before the Royal College of Physicians of