STUDENTS OF PHARMACY AND MEDICINE, PRACTICAL BY VIRGIL COBLENTZ, PH.G., A.M., PHIL.D., = PROFESSOR OF THEORY AND PRACTICE OF PHARMACY AND DIRECTOR OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL WITH THREE HUNDRED AND NINETY-FIVE ILLUSTRATIONS. PHILADELPHIA: P. BLAKISTON, SON & CO., 1012 WALNUT STREET. COPYRIGHT, 1894, BY P. BLAKISTON, SON & Co. WM. F. FELL & Co., PREFACE. In preparing this Handbook, the author's aim was to supply to the student of pharmacy a compendious and yet sufficiently detailed text-book for systematic study, and to those exercising the art a trustworthy guide to be consulted in daily practice. In accordance with this general plan, particular care has been bestowed upon the explanation of all operations and methods usually occurring in dispensing establishments and laboratories designed on a small scale. To give anything like a full account of modern apparatus, appliances, and methods pursued in large manufacturing establishments would have enlarged the work unnecessarily, without practical benefit to the dispensing apothe cary. The present work is divided into four parts, viz.: Physical and Mechanical Operations; Galenical Pharmacy; the Art of Dispensing; and Volumetric Analysis. Part I, which treats of the general principles, and physical or chemical operations in their general application, presents what may be called the theory of pharmacy. A thorough knowledge of the subjects embraced in this section is of vital importance to the apothecary, in order to enable him to control the quality of the medicinal substances which he purchases or dispenses. He who is unable to apply the proper tests or make the necessary determinations himself, is compelled to rely upon statements at second hand, and is thus handicapped not only in the management of his own business, but will be unable to secure the confidence of the public or of the medical profession, either of whom will, sooner or later, find out the shallowness of his knowledge. This portion of the work, and such of the succeeding portions as appeared to require it, have been profusely illustrated with drawings, diagrams, and cuts of apparatus and appliances, carefully selected from the best sources, both domestic and foreign. Processes which have become antiquated have been either entirely omitted, or are only briefly described. Some processes, as for instance that of grinding and powdering drugs on a large scale, have practically ceased to come within the province of the dispensing pharmacist, and demand machinery which is beyond the requirements of the latter; it has, therefore, received only a very brief mention. But the processes of grinding and powdering drugs on a small scale, and the most suitable apparatus for this purpose, have been treated of in detail. Such subjects as the |