Edward Morell Holmes

“ The rapid increase in medical and pharmaceutical knowledge renders necessary frequent new editions of the national pharmacopoeias, the office of which is to furnish definite formulae for reparations that have already come into extensive use in medical practice, so as to ensure uniformity of strength, and to give the characters and tests by which their purity and potency may be determined. But each new edition requires several years to carry out numerous experiments for devising suitable formulae, so that the current Pharmacopoeia can never be quite up to date. ”

“ The practice of pharmacy was extended by the Arabian physicians, and the separation of it from medicine was recognized in the 8th, and legalized in the 11th century. The practice of “polypharmacy,” or the use of a large number of ingredients in prescriptions, which was common in the middle ages, was greatly due to the view enunciated by Alkekendo, and held by one of the Arabian schools of medicine: that the activity of medicine increases in a duplicate ratio when compounded with others ”

“ In localities where there is hoar frost in autumn and spring the seed is sown in September or at latest in the beginning of October, and the yield of opium and seed is then greater than if sown later. After sowing, the land is harrowed, and the young plants are hoed and weeded, chiefly by women and children, from early spring until the time of flowering. In the plains the flowers expand at the end of May, on the uplands in July. At this period gentle showers are of great value, as they cause an increase in the subsequent yield of opium. ”

“ It has been decided in the law courts that a limited liability company is not a person in the eye of the law, and therefore does not come under the operation of the act of 1868. The result of this decision was that any chemist who failed to pass the qualifying examination could constitute himself with a few others, even if ignorant of pharmacy, into a limited liability company, which would then have been outside the powers of the act, and not subject to its provisions. ”

“ The standardization of preparations of patent medicines, as regards the amount of active principles they contain, can only conveniently and economically be done in operating on large quantities, and must naturally lead to the preparations being standardized at wholesale houses, who issue a guarantee with them, but it is not yet certain that deterioration may not take place after standardization, in such as those of ergot or digitalis, so that it is somewhat questionable whether the standardization is of permanent value in all cases. ”

“ The price of the drugs and the tariff for dispensing prescriptions is fixed by government authority. In Russia a prescription containing any of the poisons indicated in the schedules A and B in the Russian pharmacopoeia may not be repeated, except by order of the doctor. The use of pharmacopoeia preparations made by manufacturers is allowed, but the seller is held responsible for their purity and strength. The prices charged for dispensing are lower in countries where the number of pharmacies is limited by law, the larger returns enabling the profit to be lessened. ”

“ No opium dens have been allowed since 1907 in their possessions or leased territories in China by Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia or Japan.
The difficulties of the task undertaken by the Chinese government to eradicate a national and popular vice, in a country whose population is generally estimated at 400,000,000, are increased by the fact that the opium habit has been indulged in by all classes of society, that opium has been practically the principal if not the only national stimulant ”

“ When dry the pepper is put into bags containing from 64 to 128 ℔, and is then ready for the market. The yield varies in different localities. In Sumatra it is estimated at about 1 ℔ per plant per annum. In Malabar each vine gives 2 ℔ a year up to the fifteenth or twentieth year, or about 24 ℔ from each tree, a single tree sometimes supporting eight or twelve vines; an acre is calculated to bear 2500 plants, to cost about £4 in outlay to bring it into bearing, and to yield a produce of £80 when in its best condition. ”

“ But there are many substances in the Pharmacopoeia which are not only employed in medicine, but have other uses, such as sulphur, benzoin, tragacanth, gum arabic, ammonium carbonate, beeswax, oil of turpentine, linseed oil, and for these a commercial standard of purity as distinct from a medicinal one is needed, since the preparations used in medicine should be of the highest possible degree of purity obtainable, and this standard would be too high and too expensive for ordinary purposes. ”

“ Singapore is the great emporium for this spice in the East, the largest proportion being shipped thence to Great Britain. In 1880 the imports into England from Singapore amounted to 21,179,059 ℔, valued at £385,108, and from other countries 559,909 ℔, valued at £12,979, the re-exports being 12,925,886 ℔, chiefly to Germany, Italy, Russia, Holland, and Spain. The varieties of black pepper met with in commerce are known as Malabar, Aleppy or Tellicherry, Cochin, Penang, Singapore, and Siam. The average market value in the London market is—Malabar, 3d to 5d per ℔ ”

“ It appears probable, however, that the growth of pharmaceutical chemistry will indicate, in time, which of those in use form the most active and trustworthy preparations, while the general adoption of the metric system will lead to clearer approximation of strength than hitherto. The method adopted by the Portuguese Pharmacopoeia comes nearest to that uniformity which is so desirable in such preparations, as the tinctures of the fresh plants are all prepared with equal parts of the drug and alcoholic menstruum ”

“ The curious signs on the coloured carboys in chemists' windows, which were commonly to be seen until the middle of the 19th century, were signs used by the alchemists to indicate various chemical substances. In 1694 the apothecaries had increased from 114 to nearly 1000, and many of them, having acquired a knowledge of the uses of medicine, began to prescribe medicines for their customers and to assume the functions of the physician, who retorted in 1697 by establishing dispensaries, where medicines could be procured at their intrinsic value, or at cost price. ”

“ From that time, in spite of the remonstrances of the Chinese government, the exportation of opium from India to China continued, increasing from 52,925 piculs (of 1331/3 ℔) ; in 1850 to 96,839 piculs in 1880. While, however, the court of Peking was honestly endeavouring to suppress the foreign trade in opium from 1839 to 1858 several of the provincial viceroys encouraged the trade, nor could the central government put a stop to the home cultivation of the drug. The cultivation increased so rapidly that at the beginning of the 20th century opium was produced in every province of China. ”

“ On dry soils the young plants require watering every other day during the dry season for the first three years. The plants bear in the fourth or fifth year, and if raised from cuttings are fruitful for seven years, if from seed for fourteen years. The pepper from plants raised from cuttings is said to be superior in quantity and quality, and this method is in consequence most frequently adopted. ”

“ Probably more dependence is to be placed on careful selection of the drug, and skill in its preparation and preservation by the retail pharmacist, who should be personally responsible for the quality and purity of the preparations he sells. Although the attempt to form an international pharmacopoeia has failed, a project for an imperial pharmacopoeia which should be adapted to the general and local requirements of all parts of the British Empire has met with better success. ”

“ The duty of the Pharmaceutical Society is a purely legal one, and relates only to the schedules of poisons framed by the government to protect the public by rendering it a difficult matter to obtain the poisons most frequently used for criminal purposes. ”

“ In the year 1757 the monopoly of opium cultivation in India passed into the hands of the East India Company through the victory of Clive at Plassey. Up to 1773 the trade with China had been in the hands of the Portuguese, but in that year the East India Company took the trade under their own charge, and in 1776 the annual export reached 1000 chests, and 5054 chests in 1790. ”

“ In Sumatra the ground is cleared, ploughed, and sown with rice, and cuttings of the vine are planted in September 5 feet apart each way, together with a sapling of quick growth and rough bark. The plants are now left for twelve or eighteen months and then entirely buried except a small piece of bent stem, whence new shoots arise, three or four of which are allowed to climb the tree near which they are planted. ”

“ He must have two places in the shop, one most clean for physic, and the base place for chirurgic stuff. He is neither to increase nor to diminish the physician's prescription, he is neither to buy nor to sell rotten drugs. He is only to meddle in his own vocation; and to remember that his office is only to be the physician's cook.”
The drugs used by the physicians and apothecaries were purchased from the grossarii or sellers in gross, who were subsequently called grocers, some of whom specialized as druggists and others as chymists or chemists. ”

“ Another legal difficulty connected with modern pharmacopoeias is the inclusion in some of them of synthetic chemical remedies, the processes for preparing which have been patented, whilst the substances are sold under trade mark names such as veronal. The scientific chemical name is often long and unwieldy, and the physician prefers when writing a prescription to use the shorter name under which it is sold by the patentees. ”

“ A good deal of morphine is exported to Japan from Europe, and generally passes into China by way of Manchuria, where Japanese products have a virtual monopoly. The effects of morphine are much more deleterious than those of opium smoking. ”

“ For many drugs and chemicals not in the Pharmacopoeia there is no standard of purity that can be used under the Adulteration of Food and Drugs Act, and for these, as well as for the commercial quality of those drugs and essential oils which are also in the Pharmacopoeia, a legal standard of commercial purity is much needed. ”

“ The harvest commences as soon as one or two berries at the base of the spikes begin to turn red, and before the fruit is mature, but when full-grown and still hard; if allowed to ripen, the berries lose pungency, and ultimately fall off and are lost. The spikes are collected in bags or baskets and dried in the sun, on mats or hard ground, for two or three days. ”

“ Frederick II. in A.D. 1253 passed a law, which remained in force for a long time in the two Sicilies, by which every medical man was required to give information against any pharmacist who should sell bad medicine. The pharmacists were divided into two classes, the stationarii, who sold simple drugs and non-magisterial preparations at a tariff determined by competent authorities, and the confectionarii, whose business it was to dispense scrupulously the prescriptions of medical men; all pharmaceutical establishments were placed under the surveillance of the college of medicine. ”

“ The great increase of medical literature and international exchange of medical journals has led to the adoption in almost every country of all the really valuable remedial agents, and the more extended use of active principles has given rise to an approximation in strength of their solutions. ”

“ Most continental countries have issued stringent laws against the sale of secret remedies, and these have been lately strengthened in Germany, France and Italy. In Switzerland secret remedies cannot be advertised without submitting the formula and a sample of the remedy to the board of health. ”

“ A small amount of morphine and codeine is also manufactured in India for medicinal use. The prohibition of the general importation of morphia into China except on certain conditions was agreed to by the British government in Act XI. of the Mackay treaty, but only came into force on the 1st of January 1909. ”

“ The only method of cultivation adopted by the natives is to tie up the end of the vines to the neighbouring trees at distances of at least 6 feet, especially to those having a rough bark, in order that the roots may easily attach themselves to the surface. ”

“ International Pharmacopoeia.—Increased facilities for travel have brought into greater prominence the importance of an approach to uniformity in the formulae of the more powerful remedies, in order to avoid danger to patients when a prescription is dispensed in a different country from that in which it was written. ”

“ The subjects included are systematic botany, vegetable morphology and physiology, chemistry, physics, materia medica, pharmacy, dispensing, posology, the reading of prescriptions, and a knowledge of poisons and their antidotes. The Poisons and Pharmacy Act of 1908 (section 4) has given the society power to regulate the preliminary training, arrange a curriculum, and divide the qualifying examination into two parts, so that an approximation to the standard of pharmaceutical education on the Continent is likely to take place within a short period. ”

“ The possession of morphine by medical practitioners is also safeguarded by well-defined limitations.
Production and Commerce.—Although the collection of opium is possible in all places where there is not an excessive rainfall and the cHmate is temperate or subtropical, the yield is smaller in temperate than in tropical regions and the industry can only be profitably carried on where labour and land are sufficiently cheap and abundant; hence production on a large scale is limited to comparatively few countries. ”

“ Any medicine, the composition of which is kept Patent medicines. secret, but which is advertised on the label for the cure of diseases, must in Great Britain bear a patent medicine stamp equal to about one-ninth of its face value. The British Medical Association published in 1907 a work on Secret Remedies, what they cost and what they contain. The analyses published in this work show that nearly all the widely advertised secret remedies contain only well-known and inexpensive drugs. ”