XVII
PHARMACOPŒIAS
But here is one prescription out of many:—
Sodæ sulphat. vi, ss Mannæ optim.,
Aq. fervent, fiss, ii Tinct. Sennæ
Haustus (and here the Surgeon came and cupp'd him),
R. Pulv. Com. gr. iii Ipecacuanhæ
(With more besides if Juan had not stopp'd 'em).
Bolus Potassæ Sulphuret sumendus,
Et haustus ter in die capiendus.
Byron: Don Juan, Canto x (41).
The London Pharmacopœia.
The collection of medicinal formulas was a favourite occupation of ancient medical writers. Galen and Avicenna, Mesué and Serapion, Nicholas Prepositus and Nicolas of Salerno were the authors of the dispensatories most esteemed up to the sixteenth century in Europe. The College of Medicine of Florence adopted an Antidotarium in the early part of that century, and in 1524 the Senate of Nuremberg made the Dispensatory of Valerius Cordus official in that city. Augsburg followed the example of Nuremberg, and the Pharmacopea Augustana of 1601 was probably the first work of the kind designated a Pharmacopœia and issued under authoritative sanction. A quasi-*official Dispensatorium for the State of Brandenburg,
