PREFACE TO THE FIFTH EDITION. THE last revision of the U. S. Pharmacopoeia included 89 additions to the official list of drugs and their preparations, 92 dismissals therefrom, 282 changes of official titles and 40 changes in strength of the more important preparations, besides innumerable alterations in the solubilities of chemical substances, in specific gravities, botanical nomenclature, constituents of preparations, etc. The incorporation of so many changes into this book has necessitated the complete rewriting of the pharmaceutical parts thereof; and in addition, the author has thoroughly revised the text wherever necessary to bring it up to the present requirements of teachers, students and practitioners. Several articles, including those on Alcohol, Carbolic Acid, Creosote and Digitalis, have been entirely rewritten, and many others have been more or less expanded. New articles have been inserted on nineteen drugs which were not noticed in the previous editions. Eight new titles have been added to the section on Special Therapeutics, besides over two hundred brief references throughout its text. The article on the Treatment of Poisoning has been enlarged and recast in a form which, it is hoped, will prove more useful for rapid reference than its former shape. By placing the articles on drugs of minor importance in a smaller type, and by the omission of some matter formerly included in the appendix, the increase in the text has been kept within the bounds of thirty-two additional pages. The Index has been materially curtailed by omitting the pharmaceutical names of preparations, also the old designations of salts (as Nitrate of Silver), rendered obsolete by the adoption of the new chemical nomenclature in the pharmacopoeia. Every index reference has been retained which could not be quickly found by the alphabetical arrangement of the text. It gives the author sincere pleasure to acknowledge here his indebtedness to those reviewers and correspondents who have pointed out defects and errors in former editions. He has endeavored, in this edition, to profit by all such criticisms, without materially changing the original plan of the book, or those characteristic features which have proved important factors among the elements of its success. For the continued appreciation of his work by those for whom he designed it, the author again expresses his gratitude, which he has sought to evince by making the book even more accurate and useful than when it first earned their favor. It is a source of much gratification to the undersigned to find that the use of the word "official" instead of "officinal," urged by him in the preface to the first edition of this book, has become official by adoption in the last revision of the pharmacopoeia. San Francisco, California. September 1st, 1894. SAM'L O. L. POTTER. EXTRACTS FROM THE PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. The author's intention has been to produce a book which would embrace in a single volume the Essentials of practical Materia Medica and Therapeutics, treating of each subject in as concise phraseology as possible consistent with the delineation of every important feature. He has also endeavored to formulate such minute and definite directions for the framing of Prescriptions as might eludicate what to many is a very difficult problem. Furthermore, he has tried to present as much information upon the subject of Pharmacy as every physician should possess, in order to handle the implements of his profession with confidence, and to direct their use by others with pharmaceutical accuracy. The complete fulfilment of these aims would be realized if the book should take rank as a working companion to the advanced student and the junior practitioner; and be deemed by them a reliable guide through the forest of observations and experiments on drug actions and uses, which makes progress slow for the already over-burdened mind, when ploughing through the more exhaustive and exhausting text-books. Although this book is essentially a compilation, as all books of its class must be, there will be found in its pages much original matter derived from the writer's own experience in professional life. The arrangement of the matter will be found to be in some respects unique. After full consideration of the many arrangements of the Materia Medica in vogue, a modified alphabetical plan was adopted, by which the advantages of the alphabetical order might be retained, while permitting the grouping together of agents which are closely related, physiologically and thera peutically, under the title of the principal member of the class-the chief, as it were, of that particular clan. Thus, under the title AMYL NITRIS will be found mention also of the Ethyl, Sodium and Potassium Nitrites, and their congener Nitro-Glycerin, all of which are closely allied to the first-named and to each other, in respect of their actions and uses. A very elaborate section on Drug Classification is placed before the Materia Medica, in order to supplement such deficiencies in grouping as are inevitable in an alphabetical arrangement. In detailing the characteristics of an important drug, its physical properties and chemical constituents are first briefly enumerated, then its preparations are described in the official language of the pharmacopoeia, usually somewhat abbreviated; any important unofficial preparations being also noted, and all the compounds into which it enters enumerated. Next the physiological action is taken up, its characteristic features being first described; then the actions resulting from an ordinary medicinal dose, next those produced by small doses continued, and finally those from a toxic dose. These are followed by a brief account of its antagonists, antidotes and incompatibles, if any; and a concise summary of its therapeutical applications closes the article ;—the whole presenting, it is hoped, a clearly defined word-picture of the drug under consideration. Every article and preparation comprised in the last edition of the U. S. Pharmacopoeia is fully noticed, while all the prominent unofficial agents receive such mention as their respective importance seems to demand. The second part of the book is devoted to Pharmacy, and has been written from the standpoint of a conviction that many young practitioners would gladly dispense their own medicines, if provided with a few practical directions on the subject; thereby saving many a dollar from the drug store, preventing in their own practices at least the "renewals" which constitute so bad a feature of modern pharmaceutics, and gaining for themselves a practical acquaintance with their professional weapons which cannot but make them better physicians and more accurate prescribers. In this section of the book Prescription Writing receives full consideration, and many standard formulæ are given as samples of prescriptions of each kind in extemporaneous use. In the third part the subject of Special Therapeutics is treated of elaborately, and in the form of an alphabetically arranged Index to the treatment of diseases, as laid down by the most recent authorities. Every indication for the use of a drug is referred to its author by his initial, and to the most prominent articles are appended a few selected formulæ, to serve as guides to the neophyte in prescribing. Nearly all the regular text-books have been laid under contribution in the preparation of the book, but especial use has been made of the works of Brunton, Ringer, Wood, Phillips, Waring and Bartholow, in their latest editions; as well as of the writer's verbatim notes of two courses of didactic and clinical lectures delivered by Professors Da Costa and Bartholow in the Jefferson Medical College and Hospital and in the auditorium of the Pennsylvania Hospital. On page 502 will be found a full list of the authorities referred to by initials in the section on Special Therapeutics. The Appendix contains numerous tables, comprising diagnostic hints, Latin terms and phrases, formulæ for hypodermic use, metric equivalents, and specific gravities and volumes; also Notes on temperature in disease, the use of the clinical thermometer, the treatment of poisoning, and the examination of urine; also formulæ representing the most noted patent medicines. The Index has received special attention, from a conviction that, if well made, it is the best part of a good book. Every title, synonym and other reference of importance is included therein, double and treble entries being made in every instance which seemed to require such repetition. The term "officinal," as applied to drugs recognized by the pharmacopoeia, has been discarded, the word "official" being used instead ; for the simple reason that the idea to be conveyed is expressed more correctly by the latter term than by the former one. When none but official drugs and preparations were kept in the officina or drug store, it was eminently proper to call them "officinal," but inasmuch as this class does not nowadays constitute much over one-fourth part of the officinal stock, it is a wilful debasement of our professional weapons, as well as an inexcusable misnomer, to apply the shop-title to them any longer. COOPER MEDICAL COLLEGE, SAN FRANCISCO, December, 1886. |