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PREFACE.

tant part of the work, I have given it all the attention Iam possessed of; and although it would be almost impos-sible, and altogether unnecessary, to prove by actual experi-ment the correctness of all the formulae for the preparationsand compositions ordered in the Pharmacopoeias, yet thegreater part of those ordered in the London Pharmacopoeia,which I have chosen for my text-book, have been repeated,and an unrestrained opinion regarding them delivered. Thosechemical theories only, however, which are fully establishedhave been adopted; and I have studiously avoided rankingmyself on either side, on the important questions now at issue,suggested by the late investigations of Mr. (now Sir H.)Davy.'

With regard to the reformed nomenclature of the Pharma-copoeias, the entire principle of which has been strongly ob-jected to by Dr. Bostock, in his Remarks on the Nomenclatureof the London Pharmacopoeia, I conceive it to be my duty tostate here, that although I have not scrupled freely to criti-cize such names as appear to me to be improper in the workof the London College, and incompatible with the views of thesubject which it professes to have taken, yet, that I do notconcur with that gentleman in thinking that the reform wasunnecessary, or now, when it is accomplished, that it is notlikely to be generally adopted. It is, indeed, deeply to be

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1 The establishment of Sir H. Davy's theories has rendered the reserve impliedin this sentence no longer necessary.

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