The extra pharmacopoeia of Martindale and Westcott.

  • Westcott W. Wynn (William Wynn), 1848-1925.
Date:
1906
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The extra pharmacopoeia of Martindale and Westcott. 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.

    21/1092
    WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. *o- The British Pharmacopoeia in 1898 adopted a dual system of weights and measures in all its formulas, namely, the Imperial Weights and Measures and the Metric System. Except for wholly insignificant fractional differences, 1 a preparation made according to either system will contain ' the same proportions of ingredients ; but, as a matter of ' course, the two systems cannot both be used in the same ' operation. The Pharmacopoeia, as hitherto customary, employs Imperial measuring vessels graduated at 62° P. (16'7°C), and 1 the official names of Imperial capacity-units as defined at 1 that temperature, together with the official names of ' metric capacity-units as defined at 39'2° F. (1° C); while it 1 employs metric measures and volumetric vessels graduated ' at 60° F. (15-5° C.). In this work are given formulae in 'proportional parts,' solids by weight, and liquids by measure, as the dispensing of liquids in Great Britain is always conducted by measuring. Exceptions to this rule are in the abstracted formulae, and those from unofficial sources (in order not to interfere with the strict accuracy of either); that is, the denomination in other formulae is omitted. In those, therefore, in which 'proportional parts' are used, the quan- tities of solids and liquids at 60° F. (15-5° C.) may be taken respectively in grammes and cubic centimetres, ounces and fluid ounces, grains and (to be strictly accurate) grain measures, but minims in place of the latter will, for practical purposes, often be used, and only cause one- eleventh minus error. In the body of the work (but not in the Secondary List or Index) the approximate doses of each drug and preparation in terms of the metric system follow those of the Imperial