A hospital pharmacopoeia of the nineteenth century.

MATTHEWS wrote: 'The compilation of a pharmacopoeia by the physicians and the apothecaries of a hospital proved a great convenience to the many resident and consulting physicians treating patients there. Prescriptions in regular use for the treatment of a particular set of symptoms constituted the bulk of the formulae. Time could be saved by merely writing the name of the mixture or pills, etc., required and a supply for stock could be prepared beforehand.... As early as 1730 St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London, had its own printed pharmacopoeia, and, as newly established hospitals adopted their own routines for the dispensing of the medicines ordered for their patients, so the number of hospital pharmacopoeias increased'.' At the General Infirmary at Leeds the earliest pharmacopoeia to be discovered is that of 1863. It is hand-written and the calligraphy throughout is the same but additional entries, presumably later, are in a different hand. There are marginal initialed notes which were written by T.C.A., C.G.W., J.D.H., C.B. and another which is undecipherable. The initials must be those of Thomas Clifford Allbutt,* Claudius Galen Wheelhouse** and John Deakin Heaton***. C.B. has not been identified and was certainly not on the honorary staff of the Infirmary. The marginal notes must have been made between 1864, the year of publication of the first British Pharmacopoeia and of the appointments of Allbutt and Wheelhouse to the staff of the Infirmary, and 1880 when Heaton died. In the Infirmary pharmacopoeia of 1863 there are three Aquae or medicated waters: Aqua Menthol Pip. [sic] with oil of peppermint and rectified wine, Aqua Sodae containing carbonate of soda and citric acid, and Aqua Camphorata containing copper sulphate, Armenian bole (a clay coloured red by iron) and camphor. Hydrocyanic acid of two strengths is mentioned and there is a note signed by T.C.A. that it is dangerous to retain these. He advised that only the B.P. preparation be dispensed. There is also Acid. Nit. Mur. dil. containing equal quantities of dilute nitric and hydrochloric acids. A recipe for black ink follows. There are six Cataplasmata or poultices. Two contain bread and the others oatmeal, quinine and camomile flowers, zinc sulphate and soap, and lead subacetate and zinc oxide, respectively. It is noteworthy that neither starch nor kaolin were used. Cerata are usually mixtures of wax and oil used for external application. Four are given, one being made with soft soap, potash and precipitated chalk, the others with