Pharmaceutical Formulas: A Book of Useful Recipes for the Drug Trade

PHARMACEUTICAL FORMULAS A BOOK OF USEFUL RECIPES FOR THE DRUG TRADE COMPRISING FORMULAS FOR TOILET PREPARATIONS AND SPECIALITIES PREPARATIONS FOR THE HAIR DENTIFRICES PERFUMES HOUSEHOLD AND CULINARY REQUISITES BEVERAGES ANTISEPTICS AND DISINFECTANTS INKS VARNISHES CONFECTIONERY MEDICINAL COMPOUNDS AND MANY OTHER PREPARATIONS RELATED TO THE ART OF PHARMACY COLLATED CHIEFLY FROM THE CHEMIST AND DRUGGIST AND THE CHEMISTS AND DRUGGISTS DIARIES WITH ANNOTA T ZOS BY PETER MAC EWAN, F.C.S. PHARMACEUTICAL CHEMIST OF THE CHEMIST AND DRUGGIST EDITORIAL STAFF EDITORIAL NOTE THIS is a book which has been asked for many times during the past twenty years. Chemists who have found a formula from The Chemist and Druggist pay, their subscription over and over again have frequently suggested to the Editor that the whole of such formulas should be gathered together and published as a book. When these suggestions were accepted, and the work of collating commenced, it was seen that the task was formidable, because of the enormous number and varied quality of the formulas to be dealt with. A goodly proportion of the formulas had to be proved, and the results of the provings are partly embodied in the book. In some cases they show stock and traditional formulas to be useless. It is hoped that the annotations will be helpful to intelligent compounders, and that the hints in regard to packing, labels, and the like will assist retailers. One feature of the book is that the contents are in a great measure based upon requests from more than a generation of pharmacists for assistance in supplying articles for which they could discover no recognised formulas. Thus is it that the correspondence columns of such a journal as The Chemist and Druggist are a fair index to the everyday wants of the trade, and the best of the replies in fifty volumes have been concentrated into the book. The information so collated has been as far as possible checked by experiment and reference to the original sources, and supplemented by private formulas which have been abundantly proved in practice. The book is not a treatise on practical pharmacy it is assumed that those who use it are acquainted with pharmaceutical manipulation, and understand the art and mystery underlying such expressions as M.S.A The customary signs employed in prescriptions are, with few exceptions, used in the formulas, but it is well to note, as opinions differ in the matter, that their equivalence is as follows - a a scruple of 20 grains. 3 a drachm of 60 glains, or 60 minims. 5 an ounce of 4373 grains, or 480 minims. lb. a pound of 16 ounces. 0 a pint of 20 ounces. Cong. a pllon of 8 pints. The British rule, Solids by weight, liquids by measure, applies throughout, unless where otherwise stated. Care has been taken to modify continental formulas according to this rule. This is important in dealing with liquids, and is too frequently neglected, with the result that British compounders fail to produce preparations like the originals. For example, a mixture of I part of syrupy phosphoric acid and 10 parts of rectified spirit in a German formula should be put as 0.66 part and 12 parts respectively in an English one, because the specific gravity of the acid is 1.500 and of the spirit 0830. The strength of the mixture is I in 11 by weight or I in 19 , by measure. In the case of forrnulas which have originated in the United States, and which contain the pint, it has to be remembered that 16 oz. not 20 oz is implied. Failure to recognise these and similar differences in practice is largely responsible for the propagation of a host of unworkable formulas In some instances the selection of formulas for specific articles may seem unnecessarily liberal. It stands to reason that a retailer does not require, e.g...