pceias. The college of Edinburgh, as it has long led the way as a medical school, has also taken the lead in this in stance, and has the honour of having first composed a pharmacopoeia, in the pure and unmixed language of science, by its last edition, published in November 1804. The Dublin College has followed its ex ample, by a very excellent specimen alte. rum, published about six months ago ; and at length the College of London, sti mulated by such noble incentives, has also roused itself, and is on the point of re editing its own pharmacopwia, with the modern improvements, of the greater part of which we are even now able to avail ourselves, from the possession of one of the few copies which have been worked off as specimens, and circulated amidst the members of the college, and the best informed medical practitioners, for the purpose of marginal remarks, before the publication of the work in a finished state. In its general nomenclature, it will be found not to vary essentially from the no menclature of the Edinburgh pharmaco poeia, and especially in that part of it which relates to the Materia Medics, the immediate (inject before us.
We freely confess our surprise, that, from the errors resulting from a promis cuous use of weights and measures, no thing either general or very decisive, has been attempted by either of Biel. wo new, or the projected pharmacopoeia. It would have added largely to the reputation of the intended edition of the London Col lege, if it had adopted the decimal and applicable mensuration of the French In stitute, at the same time that it consented to admit the French nomenclature. It has not, however, been altogether inactive upon this subject, for it has thrown away the unscientific and indecisive measure of drops, and has instituted that of grains in its stead, so that a drop in the forthcom ing edition will be found to answer to a grain, in the same manlier as a pint an swers to a pound, the Troy weight being still continued as heretofore : and of course a scruple will intimate twenty grains of liquids as well as of solids. We shall only observe further, that the Edin burgh College has expressed an intracta ble abhorrence of all measures of medi cines whatsoever, and in consequence has rejected their use in every instance : so that in the Edinburgh forms, the liquids of every kind are supposed to be em. ployed by weight alone.
In the ensuing classification we have been anxious to give our readers a gene 1. Of Emetics.
These may be regarded as irritative or evacuant, or both. Of the first we have instances in the sulphuret of antimony, the tartar emetic of popular language, sulphate of zinc, or white vitriol, and the sulphate of copper, or blue vitriol. Of the second we
have instances in ipecacuanha and squills ; of the third, in tobacco and foxglove.
From the use of emetic medicines the following direct effects are produced. They excite sickness, nausea, and their common attendants. They produce the action of vomiting itself They occasion sudden and opposite changes in the cir culation. They increase the secretion or the discharge of secreted matter from the various glands which prepare fluids to be deposited in the alimentary canal.
The changes induced in the system in consequence of the primary effects of emetics are: the evacuation of the con tents of the stomach, and, in some degree, of the ,upper part of the intestinal tube : free circulation through the stomach, in testines, and glands, whose secreted mat ters are acted upon : general agitation of the body : a commotion of the nervous a particular affection of the sur face of the body. The indications which emetic medicines are capable of fulfilling may be derived from the following sources : 1. Their producing agitation of the body, whence they may be employed to restore uniform circulation ; to pro mote diminished lymphatic absorption ; to remove obstruction in the sanguife rous system. 2, From their producing evacuation by vomiting, whence they may be used, to discharge noxious mat ters taken in by the mouth ; to discharge morbid accumulations of secreted matters lodged in the stomach ; to evacuate se rous accumulations. 3. From the affec tion of the nervous system which they occasion ; whence they may be employ-. ed, to restore excitement to the nervous system in general, and obviate inordinate affections of the nervous energy. These indicationsmay be illustrated and confirm ed by attention to the use of emetics, when employed in cases of fever, dysen tery, pulmonary consumption, jaundice, apoplexy, dropsy, and poisons.
In the use of emetics we ought to pay attention to the circumstances of infancy, old age, pregnancy, delicacy of habit, and plethora. The circumstances chiefly to be regarded with respect to the regimen necessary for this class, are, the state of the stomach when the emetic is exhibit ed; the means of facilitating the opera tion ; the time of exhibiting the medi cine ; the temperature in which the pa tient is kept, after its operation is finish ed. The different individuals belonging to the class of emetics are chiefly contra indicated by the presence of the follow ing morbid states : a rupture or relaxa tion of containing membranes ; topical in flammation of the internal viscera ; a high degree of morbid debility in these ; fixed obstructions to the circulation.