PART I. MATERIA MEDICA AND PHARMACY DEFINITIONS Materia Medica.—The materials used in the treatment of disease. Pharmacy. The art of preparing drugs in a form suitable for use, as remedial agents, and of dispensing them. Pharmacopoeia.-A code of remedial agents, usually with descriptions, definitions or directions, prepared by experts appointed by authority, and intended to serve as a standard until superseded by a new one. By admitting certain articles to its pages, it declares them to be of importance, through the extent of their use, or to be entitled to confidence because of their value, or both, in the practice of medicine, but does not, necessarily, deny these properties to articles not admitted. It fixes their official title or titles and abbreviations, doses, and often their leading synonym or synonyms. Usually it defines them, describes them with completeness sufficient to provide for identification and determination of the proper degree of purity, or strength, or both, and details and recommends such operations in preparing them as pertain to a dispensing pharmacy. It may, in addition, provide rules, formulas, tables, and other information of importance in the practice of pharmacy and medicine. Everything contained in the United States Pharmacopoeia (abbreviation "U. S. P.") is said to be "official." The United States Pharmacopoeia is prepared by a committee, meeting at the beginning of each decade, elected by a Convention of delegates, appointed by invitation, extended by the President of the preceding Convention, to all incorporated medical and pharmaceutical societies and colleges, and to the United States Army, Navy, and Marine Hospital Service. The U. S. P. is the authority by Act. of Congress, in the conduct of the Department of Customs, Bureau of Chemistry, of the Army, Navy, and Marine Hospital Service, and of the District of Columbia and other Territories within the jurisdiction of the United States laws. By legislative enactment it is also made a legal authority within the jurisdiction of many States. The present revision became official on September 1, 1916. PHARMACY Pharmacy covers a field of nearly as much importance, breadth and difficulty as that of medicine itself, and requires a special, extensive and thorough preparation. It should never be practised by the physician, when the services of a competent manufacturing or dispensing pharmacist can be utilized. The physician should, however, be acquainted with the general principles and most of the details of the science and art of Pharmacy, that he may judge intelligently of the services rendered him by the pharmacist, and also be prepared to act with safety himself in cases of emergency. A pharmaceutical education to this extent, accompanied by dispensary practice, should be provided for in every thorough course of medical study. TERMS APPLIED TO SUBSTANCES OF VEGETABLE ORIGIN Alkaloids. (Their English names terminating in ine, their Latin names terminating in ina: ia, occasionally found in literature, is officially obsolete.) Compounds of carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen, and usually containing also oxygen, either existing in the plant as proximate principles, or being derived from other alkaloids, having basic properties, and forming salts, usually crystallizable, with acids, without displacing any of the hydrogen of the latter. The chief characters are as follows: 1. Either (a) solid, mostly crystalline and colorless, non-volatile, or (b) liquid and volatile. 2. They turn red litmus paper blue. 3. They are soluble in alcohol, chloroform, petroleum benzin, benzene, and often in ether. They are insoluble in water, but not so their salts, while the latter are insoluble in chloroform, ether, petroleum benzin and benzene. 4. They are usually precipitated from saline solution by alkalies. 5. One or more of the following will precipitate them: tannic, phosphomolybdic or picric acid, potassio-mercuric iodide, or auric chloride. 6. Their solutions are usually intensely bitter. Alkaloids, as a class, are the most energetic and important medicinal constituents of plants. Examples in U. S. P.: Atropine, Morphine, Strychnine. Artificial Alkaloids. Some can be produced by synthetic proc esses. Example in U. S. P.: Theophyllina, which also is found in the plant. Others are made from alkaloids obtained from plants. Examples in U. S. P.: Apomorphina, official as the hydrochloridum, Homatropina, official as the hydrobromidum, and Hydrastinina, official as the hydrochoridum. Glucosides. (Their English names terminating in in, their Latin names terminating in inum.) Bodies which, under the influence of heat, dilute acids, strong alkalies, enzymes, certain fungi or bacteria, split up into glucose or rarely some other sugar and other substances as alcohols, aldehydes, phenols. Examples in U. S. P.: Salicinum, Strophanthinum. Amaroids or Bitter Principles (their names ending in in and inum as above) are of such varied nature that they do not admit of any chemical classification. The term includes all distinctly bitter extractives of definite chemical composition other than alkaloids and glucosides. Glucosides and Amaroids are not the only principles whose names end in in. Fixed Oils are those which cannot be distilled without decomposition. They are esters of the higher fatty acids which at ordinary temperatures remain liquid. The fatty acids commonly entering into the composition of fixed oils are oleic, palmitic, and stearic. Example: Olive oil consists of a mixture of a combination of oleic acid (C18H34O2) with glyceryl (CHS) = olein and palmitic acid (C16H 32O2) with glyceryl palmitin. In it there is thus a mixture of two oils having the formulæ C3H5(C18H33O2)3 and C3H5 (C16H 31O2) 3 respectively. = When acted upon by caustic alkalies or metallic oxides, these form soaps (oleates, palmitates, or stearates of metals) and glycerin. This process is called saponification, e.g., C3H5(C18H33O2)3 + 3NaOH = 3NaC18H33O2 (Sodium Oleate) +C2H(OH), (Glycerin). Fixed oils are obtained by expression or by boiling with water and skimming off the melted oil, from the fruits or seeds of plants, or from animal tissues. When pure they are usually colorless or pale yellow; they float on water and cause a greasy mark on paper. With very few exceptions, owing to their large content of olein, they are liquid at ordinary temperatures. They are soluble in ether, chloroform, turpentine and volatile oils. |