Note 338 — PHARMACOLOGIA.

The Reviewer of Mr. Phillip’s Translation of the Pharmacopœia, in the Royal Institution Journal for July, 1824, has fallen into an important error upon this subject, against which it may be necessary to caution the reader; he says, “the term ‘diluted acetic acid’ is properly enough applied to Distilled Vinegar, but the process of distillation might well have been rejected; for all medical purposes a dilute acid, composed of one part of the concentrated acid, contained in the Materia Medica, and four parts of water, is preferable. Of this mixture, or of distilled vinegar, the specific gravity should be 1·009, and 1000 grains should saturate 145 grains of Sub-carbonate of Soda.” The reviewer has mistaken the acid of sp. gr. 1·043 mentioned by Phillips, as the strongest he has met with, for the Pharmacopœia acid of sp. gr. 1·046; for, should he dilute the latter with only four times its weight of water, he would produce a compound containing 5·686 per cent. of real acid, or one considerably stronger than the strongest malt vinegar, and twice the strength of distilled vinegar. The reviewer takes this occasion to indulge his favourite passion for abusing the Pharmacopœia, and he asks with an air of sarcasm, Where was Dr. Paris during the late revision? I answer—engaged in the discharge of my duty as a humble member of the Committee, and I can assure him that nothing which he has yet urged has convinced me that I have failed in its fulfilment, or erred in its execution:—but it is now my turn to enquire, and I do so with perfect good humour, where the reviewer could have been when he composed the above passage? that he was not at home, is I think sufficiently evident from the statement which I have just offered.