Читать книгу Pharmacologia онлайн

54 страница из 211

Such was the feeling of the Committee appointed by the College for the revision of the late London Pharmacopœia, and it sufficiently explains why the nomenclature of the alkaline salts has been left unchanged in the present edition of that work.

The French, in their new Codex, are absurdly extravagant in their application of chemical nomenclature; thus, the sub-carbonate of potass is called by them sub-deuto-carbonas potassii. The first part of this quadruple name indicates the comparative quantity of acid in the salt, the second that of oxygen contained in the base, the thud announces the acid, and the fourth the basis of the base!

ssss1

It has been just stated, that we have derived from botanical science a philosophical language which enables us to describe the structure and habits of any plant, with a luminous brevity and an unerring perspicuity; but we are moreover indebted to botany for another service no less important to the successful investigation of the Materia Medica,—that of throwing into well defined groups, those plants which possess obvious natural affinities, and which will be found at the same time to present certain medicinal analogies; indeed, as a general rule, we may admit the axiom, “Quæ genere conveniunt, virtute conveniunt.”^[85]