been produced. The standardization of preparations of patent
medicines, as regards the amount of active principles they contain,
can only conveniently and economically be done in operating on
large quantities, and must naturally lead to the preparations being
standardized at wholesale houses, who issue a guarantee with them,
but it is not yet certain that deterioration may not take place after
standardization, in such as those of ergot or digitalis, so that it is
somewhat questionable whether the standardization is of permanent
value in all cases. Probably more dependence is to be placed on
careful selection of the drug, and skill in its preparation and preservation
by the retail pharmacist, who should be personally
responsible for the quality and purity of the preparations he sells.
Although the attempt to form an international pharmacopoeia
has failed, a project for an imperial pharmacopoeia which should
be adapted to the general and local requirements of all parts of
the British Empire has met with better success. With the aid of
the medical and pharmaceutical authorities in each of the seventy
administrative divisions of the British Empire an Indian and Colonial
addendum to the British Pharmacopoeia of 1898 was compiled
and published in 1900 in which each article receives official sanction
in the countries indicated at the foot of the monographs. This
was regarded as a preparatory step to the publication of a complete
imperial pharmacopoeia.
Several unofficial universal pharmacopoeias have been published in England and in France, which serve to show the comparative strength of parallel preparations in different countries. The metric or decimal mode of calculation and the centigrade scale of temperature are adopted in all pharmacopoeias except those of Great Britain (in which the metric equivalents are now given) and in some instances of Greece. The majority omit chemical formulae. An alphabetical arrangement is followed in all. The maximum doses of preparations are given in several pharmacopoeias and the physician must indicate on his prescription, if he exceeds this limit, by using a note of exclamation after each article, that he purposely intends such a dose to be employed. The great increase of medical literature and international exchange of medical journals has led to the adoption in almost every country of all the really valuable remedial agents, and the more extended use of active principles has given rise to an approximation in strength of their solutions. The difficulty of nomenclature could probably be overcome by a list of synonyms being given with each article, and that of language by the use of Latin. The greatest stumbling blocks in the way of uniformity are the tinctures and extracts—a class of preparations containing many very powerful drugs, but in which the same name does not always indicate the same thing; thus, extract of aconite signifies an extract of the root in the pharmacopoeias of the United States, Japan and Russia, extract of the leaves in the Danish and Portuguese, inspissated juice of the fresh leaves in the Greek, and alcoholic extract of the root in that of Spain and Italy, and alcoholic extract of the dried leaves in the Chilean pharmacopoeias. It appears probable, however, that the growth of pharmaceutical chemistry will indicate, in time, which of those in use form the most active and trustworthy preparations, while the general adoption of the metric system will lead to clearer approximation of strength than hitherto. The method adopted by the Portuguese Pharmacopoeia comes nearest to that uniformity which is so desirable in such preparations, as the tinctures of the fresh plants are all prepared with equal parts of the drug and alcoholic menstruum; simple tinctures in general, with unfortunately a few exceptions, with one part of the drug in five parts of alcohol of given strength; ethereal tinctures are in the proportion of one part in ten; and the tinctures of the alkaloids and their salts contain one part of the alkaloid in ninety-nine of menstruum.
Homoeopathic and eclectic practitioners as well as dentists have also their special pharmacopoeias.
See Bell and Redwood, Progress of Pharmacy (London, 1880); Scherer, Literatura pharmacopoearum (Leipzig and Sorau, 1822), Flint, Report on the Pharmacopoeias of all Nations (Washington, 1883).
- (E. M. H.)
PHARMACOSIDERITE, a mineral species consisting of hydrated basic ferric arsenate, 2FeAsO4·Fe(OH)3·5H2O. Crystals have the form of small, sharply defined cubes of an olive or on the matrix of the specimens. On account of its cubic form the mineral was early known as “cube ore” (Ger., Würfelerz), the name pharmacosiderite, given by J. F. L. Hausmann in 1813, alludes to the arsenic and iron present (φάρμακον, and σίδηρος, iron). The faces of the cube are striated parallel to one diagonal, and alternate corners are sometimes replaced by faces of a tetrahedron. The crystals are feebly doubly refracting, and in polarized light exhibit a banded structure parallel to the cube faces The hardness is 2½; and the specific gravity 2.8. Recent analyses prove the presence of a small but variable amount of potassium (K2O, 2.68–4.13%) in the Cornish crystals, though in those from Hungary there is grass-green colour, and occur together in considerable numbers, only a trace, this constituent appears to take the place of basic hydrogen in the above formula. A curious property is to be observed when a crystal of pharmacosiderite is placed in a solution of ammonia—in a few minutes the green colour changes throughout the whole crystal to red, on placing the red crystal in dilute hydrochloric acid the green colour is restored. Natural crystals are sometimes honey-yellow to brown in colour, but this appears to be due to alteration.
Pharmacosiderite is a mineral of secondary origin, the crystals occurring attached to gozzany quartz in the upper part of veins of copper ore. It was found in some abundance at the end of the 18th century in the copper mines of the St Day district in Cornwall, and has since been found at a few other localities, for example, at Königsberg near Schemnitz in Hungary, and in the Tintic district in Utah.
- (L. J. S.)
PHARMACY, a term which in the original Greek form signified the use of any kind of drug (φάρμακον), potion or spell, and hence also poison and witchcraft. In the modern signification it is applied to the act of preparing, preserving and compounding medicines, according to the prescriptions of physicians. It was used first in this sense in 1597.
In the earliest periods of the world's history of which we have any record, this art, like that of the perfumer, was practised by a special class of the priesthood, as in the case of Eleazar (Num. iv. 16), and that of medicine by another class (Lev. xiii.).
Egyptian inscriptions indicate that the physician-priests sent their prescriptions to be dispensed by the priests of Isis when, accompanied by the chanter of incantations and spells, they visited the sick.[1] A papyrus of Sent, 3300 B.C., gives directions as to the preparation of prescriptions. In the Ebers papyrus, 1550 B.C., mention is made of blisters, ointments, clysters, mineral and vegetable drugs. The art of the apothecary is alluded to very early in the Old Testament history (Exod. xxx. 25–35 and in xxxvii. 20) and again in the time of Solomon (Eccles. x. 9), but this word, which is translated par fumeur in the French version, only indicates that the preparation of fragrant unguents and incense formed, even at that early date, a part of pharmacy, since the drugs mentioned, viz. galbanum, myrrh, stacte, frankincense, calamus, cassia and cinnamon, were all of them used in perfumes, even the myrrh being probably the kind distinguished at the present time in the Bombay market as perfumed myrrh or bissabol, which still forms an ingredient of the joss sticks used as incense in the temples in China. The myrrh mentioned in Gen. xxxvii. 35 is described under another Hebrew word, and refers to ladanum, a fragrant resin produced in Cyprus, and the use of this drug, as well as that of cinnamon and cassia, indicates even at that early period a knowledge of the products of Somaliland, Arabla and the East Indies and the existence of trade between the farther East and Egypt. In China also at a very early period the art of pharmacy was practised. Ching-Hong, a contemporary of Menes I. of Egypt, was learned in the art, and made decoctions and extracts of plants. The materia medica of the Chinese at the present date affords an excellent illustration of the changes that have taken place in the use of drugs, and of the theories and superstitions that have guided the selection of these from the earliest ages, inasmuch as it still comprises articles that were formerly used in medicine, but have now been utterly discarded. Thus the doctrine of signatures is evident in the use of the celebrated Ginseng root of China, which, like that of the mandrake (Gen. xxx. 14–16), owed its employment to the fact that the root often divides into branches resembling the arms and legs of a man, and this resemblance gave rise to the belief that it conferred strength and virility. The same belief is shown in the botanical names applied to many plants, e.g. Pulmonaria, Hepatica, Scrophularia, and others.
The astrological belief that plants, animals and minerals are under the influence of the planets is shown in the older names of some of the metals, e.g. Saturn for lead, Venus for copper, and Mars for iron, and the belief that the colours of flowers
- ↑ The Egyptians believed that the medicinal virtues of plants were due to the spirits who dwelt within them.
