A universal formulary : containing the methods of preparing and administering officinal and other medicines the whole adapted to physicians and pharmaceutists / by R. Eglesfeld Griffith.

  • Griffith, R. Eglesfeld (Robert Eglesfeld), 1798-1850.
Date:
[1854]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A universal formulary : containing the methods of preparing and administering officinal and other medicines the whole adapted to physicians and pharmaceutists / by R. Eglesfeld Griffith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    INTRODUCTION. The value of these various pounds in grammes is thus calculated by Jourdain : The pound of 5760 grains. = 301.230 grammes Prussia = 350.761 “ Sweden = 356.227 “ Nuremberg = 357.843 Poland = 358.510 « Pavaria = 360.000 “ Lubeck = 369.126 “ United States and \ _ „„ Great Britain | = 3/3.202 Holland = 375.000 “ Austria = 420.009 “ The pound of 6400 grains. Turkey = 321.317 “ The pound of 6912 grains. Coni = 307.370 “ Monticelli = 307.370 “ P>acenza = 317.577 grammes Bologna = 325.665 » Soragna = 325.800 Parma = 828.000 “ Corte = 330.400 « Turin = 331.961 “ Uucca = 334.500 “ Borne = 339.073 “ Tuscany = 339.542 “ Modena = 340.457 “ Portugal = 344.190 Spain = 345.072 “ The pound of 7200 grains. Naples z= 320.230 “ The pound of 9216 grains. France = 489.503 “ Liquid Measures of the United States and Great Britain. The liquid measures employed by the apothecaries in the United States, are the wine gallon and its sub-divisions. Wine or Apothecaries’ Measure. (Adopted in the United States Pharmacopoeia.') Cubic Inches. Grains Troy. 1 minim, nv 0.95 60 = 1 fluidrachm, f. 3 = 0.2256 = 56.96 480 = 8 = 1 fluidounce, f. 3 = 1.8047 = 455.69 7680 = 128 = 16 = 1 pint, Q * = 28.875 = 7291.11 61440 = 1024 = 128 = 8 = 1 gallon, Cong. = 231. = 58328.88 For a long time, the Boyal Colleges of Physicians in England, Scotland, and Ire- land declined to recognize the use of measures in preparing and dispensing medicines, on the ground that the varying densities of different fluids rendered it difficult to use one common measure for all without risk of serious errors. But as druggists and medical practitioners constantly employed measures, in defiance of the prohibition, and as tbe practice, besides being attended with great and obvious convenience, was found to be less fraught with danger than had been conceived, the London College in the first instance, and subsequently the other colleges also, recognized a system of measures of their own, founded on the standard measures of the country. The Colleges of London and Edinburgh, adopting the imperial pint of 1826 as the basis, divide it into twenty parts, called fluidounces; each of which corresponds exactly with an avoirdupois ounce of distilled water at 62° F. and 30° bar., and therefore contains 437.5 grains troy. The fluidounce is subdivided into eight parts of 54.6875 grains, termed fluidrachms; and each of these consists of sixty parts, called minims, which therefore amount each in weight to 0.91146 troy grains of distilled water. [The Dublin College, at the last revision of its Pharmacopoeia in 1851, adopted the same standard for measures; so that all the British Colleges now use the Impe- rial pint and its subdivision of twenty fluidounces.—Ed.]