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stead of the uncouth term kali, we might by this time have had a more classical name for this alkali in common use. It is difficult to define a sense of linimentum which shall comprehend the oxymel æruginis; its use as an external application can scarcely be allowed to enter into the definition; and the preparation might have remained among the Mellita, without the least impropriety. The powder and tincture, containing opium, have received new names, principally on account of the danger of being mistaken for opium, or its simple tincture, and partly, perhaps, to avoid the occasional interference of groundless prejudices.

It appears to be impossible, on any principle of scientific nomenclature, to defend the adoption of the same term for a class and a genus: an error which has been very unnecessarily committed in two instances, Syrupus and Ceratum having been employed as titles of their respective chapters, as well as to express the preparations more properly called syrupus simplex, and ceratum simplex, being the simplest possible of the preparations which bear those names. The general term spiritus seems to imply that the whole fluid either has been, or might be distilled: hence Dr. A. Duncan, in his most useful and elaborate manual, has very properly referred both the spiritus lavendulæ compositus, and the spiritus ammoniæ succinatus to the tinctures.

A few inconsistencies and inaccuracies, derived from the partial change of nomenclature, will probably be corrected in future editions. For example: the paragraph which remarks that fluids are to be measured, and solids to be weighed, unless the contrary is expressed, is perfectly inapplicable to the present state of the Pharmacopoeia, where no ambiguity is left in the terms; and the insertion of the word pondere, in many of the formulæ, is equally superfluous. Under acidum muriaticum, we have aquæ selibra, for half a pint: under spiritus ammoniæ succinatus, minims of the essential oil are substituted for an equal number of drops, ordered in the first

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specimen. The directions for making the liquor ammoniæ acetatæ are somewhat indistinctly expressed. Under antimonii sulphuretum præcipitatum, we must read in pulverem subtilem tere,' the substance having already been called a powder. The tables of the new and old names are in many instances imperfect, and in some inaccurate.

Dr. Powell's translation must be considered almost as a second original, since it contains an explanation of the reasons for which most of the alterations have been adopted; as well as some further observations of considerable importance: and there can be no doubt that its circulation will be equally extensive with that of the Pharmacopoïa itself, or even still more so. Dr. Powell having acted as secretary to the select committee, employed in the revision of the work, no person had so good a right to offer his remarks to the public, and his undertaking has been sanctioned by the approbation of the president, and of the committee.

The translation is in general faithful and accurate; but the work is not free from a few errata. We are told, p. 67, that an ounce of dilute nitric acid "will saturate nearly one hundred of white marble," instead of about 42 grains. For the tincture of rhubarb, p. 273, we are directed to employ an ounce and a half of cardamom seeds, instead of half an ounce. In the pulvis creta compositus cum opio, p. 322, the proportion of opium is somewhat increased, not "lessened." Dr. Powell observes that spirit is added to the liquor hydrargyri muriatis, to prevent " the vegetation of mucor, to which all saline solutions are liable:" surely not strong mercurial solutions, even if extremely weak ones should be. He says, p. 167, that, “a bladder is mentioned for straining the galbanum, but—a canvass bag is preferable:" now "galbanum is almost entirely soluble in water," and if it were boiled in a canvass bag, much of its substance might be lost: and it was never meant that it should be strained through a bladder. The distinction of fluidounce is sometimes omitted, as might

naturally be expected in the use of a new term. The most striking inaccuracies, however, are those of the "prosodial table," and of the "quantity of words used" in the catalogue of the materia medica. These may be considered as things too puerile to deserve the notice of a practical physician: but for one who has no longer the fear of the birch before his eyes, it would have been better to have left them altogether to schoolboys, than to have committed so many little errors of any kind, in a work which ought to be a standard of precision. We find not only Accăia, acidum sulphuricum, antimōnium, rosa centifolia, scammōnea, staphisāgria, confectio rōsæ, crocus, and sāpo, in which the modern pronunciation is not affected by the quantity, but also ammoniæ and ferri carbonas, which is still more carbone notandum. Jalăpa may be questioned, from the analogy with rāpa: strobili agrees with the Latin dictionaries, but there are at least two instances in the Greek plays, in which strobilus occurs: syrupus is marked sirūpus by Ainsworth, though supposed to be derived from the barbarous term gámov, or from an oriental word like sherbet, or sorbitio; it would have a more classical appearance if it were written augenos, as if an extracted juice. In caryophyllus, and glycyrrhiza, the vowels are short, although the syllables are long by their position. Aloĕs, pilūlæ, and pulvis aloes compositus, can only be errors of the press.

Notwithstanding these slight imperfections, Dr. Powell appears, on the whole, to have executed his task with considerable judgment and ability; and, together with his colleagues of the select committee, Dr. Heberden, Dr. Ash, and Dr. Maton, amply to deserve the thanks of the Profession at large.

353

SEVENTY-EIGHT STUDIES FROM NATURE, ENGRAVED BY WILLIAM GREEN, FROM DRAWINGS MADE BY HIMSELF.

London, printed by Barfield, for Messrs. Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, Paternoster-Row; and W. Green, Ambleside, Westmoreland. 1809. Large folio. Price five guineas, boards.

THESE Studies consist principally of such objects as Landscape-painters select for their fore-grounds, and of the Cottages and Rocks of Cumberland and Westmoreland. They are etched in soft ground, with a degree of freedom and mastery of the pencil, which may be looked at with consider able advantage by students in landscape, and by all persons with pleasure.

In the title-page (as the reader has seen) these prints are spoken of as being Engravings, and the word, though incorrect, is probably in this instance, not meant to deceive the public, but it is inadvertently used by the Ambleside Artist, in conformity with language, which the reiterated endeavours of publishers and prospectus-mongers, in their numerous advertisements, have but too far succeeded in introducing, and which has therefore obtained among us to a certain degree; but of which the effect has been to confound those verbal distinctions, which would else, by assisting the public discernment, have tended to the improvement of its taste.

With prospectus-mongers and their artifices, the reader is probably not very well acquainted. They have rather been felt than seen, and are far from being universally recognized. They have only been known to exist since non-descript animals were brought hither from Botany-bay, and though I cannot swear that they were imported from thence, I may

safely assert that the sooner they are dismissed thither, the sooner will the public be likely to reap the full and fair benefit of British art, and literature.

But so serious an evil appears to call for more serious notice; and though I cannot here mean to develope the various and deleterious practice of the empirics of art and literature— that would not only be too wide a field to do more than look into just at present, but, if I may rely on some little experience, I might as well have disclosed the inhuman and unprincipled proceedings of the African slave-traders a dozen years ago;— yet in stating this misuse of the single word Engraving, I find myself induced, on balancing the restraints, against the encouragement, of my experience, to dwell yet somewhat longer (and more gravely) on the hitherto unnoticed but increasing tribe of prospectus-mongers, and the mischiefs to which they have given rise.

Had they in the time of Dr. Adam Smith existed, and been generally known to exist, in the paradise of taste, as in the field of agriculture, it is somewhat to be feared that (in the language which the senate appears to have adopted from that great philosopher of wealth,) they would have been merely classed with the "middle-men :”—though the deterioration of mind, which alone, men live to improve, be incalculably more destructive to the ends and purposes of society, than raising the price of provisions or manufactures. At least such conclusions as these, are almost unavoidable, when considerations which involve the happiness, are either identified with, or superseded by, those which respect only the wealth of nations.

Middle men in one sense, they certainly are. I only quarrel with the office-phrase, because it expresses merely the station which they occupy, without alluding to the mischiefs which they produce. They are neither artists, scholars, nor book-sellers: but occupy a middle and unostensible station

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