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in the business has shown to be of value and interest to druggists in the practice of their profession.

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The original processes and formula that are introduced in these pages, notably those of water-bath percolation - have. not been formulated and recommended, without thorough and repeated trials and proofs of their efficiency; and it is asserted with all due respect to the authority of the Pharmacopoeia, that, if properly followed they will give better results and produce better preparations than corresponding officinal process and formulæ.

The practice of Pharmacy in this country is gradually emerging from the position of a trade to the dignity of a profession, and it must be borne in mind that the bettering of its position is due, mainly, to the superior pharmaceutical education and training of the druggists and pharmacists of the present as compared with those of former time. Whatever, therefore, adds to the stock of pharmaceutical knowledge, or assists pharmacists to a better understanding and use of such knowledge, cannot but be of permanent value to the profession. It is with this aim in view that this volume is issued; and if, as is earnestly hoped, it may lighten the labor, or contribute to the knowledge, pleasure or profit of the ever-busy druggists of the land, the writer will feel that his labor has not been in vain.

WESTFIELD, N. Y., Aug., 1884.

B. F.

OUR WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.

The confusion that exists in our weights and measures, as applied to the business of the pharmacist, somewhat resembles the confusion of tongues at the building of the Tower of Babel.

We buy and sell by avoirdupois weight and wine measure -the commercial weight and measure of the United States. They are used and understood by all business men in all business transactions requiring their use, and are familiar to all the people of this country.

The poor druggist, however, in making his preparations is confronted at the outset by a confused and complex array of weights and measures, which to convert into shape for his use and convenience requires considerable mathematical calculation and more than average intelligence.

It is well in a business point of view that the profits on drugs are large, for few druggists take into consideration that in buying by avoirdupois weight of 4371⁄2 grains in an ounce and dispensing or selling by apothecary or troy weight of 60 grains in a drachm, or 480 grains in an ounce, there is a loss of about 10 per cent. Although this may seem trifling, yet in the aggregate it is a large item, and should be well considered and understood.

Another matter which cannot be well overlooked is the difference in the weight and measure of acids, syrups, glycerin, chloroform, etc., which are usually bought by weight and sold or dispensed by measure, the difference between their weight and measure ranging from 20 to 45 per cent. On essential oils, spirits of nitre, and other ethers there is however a trifling gain, as they weigh less than they measure.

But outside of the consideration of the subject in a business point of view, is the great inconvenience of so many

different kinds of weights and measures. Few druggists throughout the country are provided with troy weights of larger denomination than an ounce, and but a very small number are provided with metric weights and measures; therefore, if any considerable quantity of a preparation is desired to be made, these weights must be converted into avoirdupois weight or apothecary measure.

It is, however, more frequently the case, especially with country druggists and those who have not had special pharmaceutical training, that when troy weight in ounces is directed avoirdupois weight in ounces is used. This assertion is not made without a thorough knowledge of the drug trade as it is throughout the country, and when everything is considered it may not be thought so much a fault of the druggists as of having a system of weights directed in textbooks which are not used in business transactions. This, of course, does not refer to the new Pharmacopoeia, in which troy weight is omitted altogether, but to the former Pharmacopoeias, the Dispensatories, and text-books generally used.

The new Pharmacopoeia has attempted to remedy the difficulty by introducing the metric system of weights and measures, and by substituting parts by weight, instead of definite weight and fluid measure. Instead of being a benefit as was designed, it proves but another stumbling block in the way of the average druggist. It adds to the confusion by introducing a new system of weights and measures with which the greater share of druggists in this country are unacquainted; and by the innovation of parts. by weight, which is at least inconvenient and unfamiliar to most American druggists. As a proof of the inconvenience of parts by weight for making definite quantities by measure, of any liquid preparation, let the druggist try to make a pint or a quart (the amount usually required to fill his shelf bottles) of any preparation, in parts by weight as directed by the new Pharmacopoeia. He will find that it involves a tedious, if not a complex, mathematical calculation.

Let us for a moment review and compare our weights and measures as they now are.

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