Edinburgh Pharmacopoeia

The 1746 London Pharmacopoeia was the last in which Mithridatium and Galene appear they were absent from the 1788 edition. The Edinburgh Pharmacopoeia, first published in 1699, dropped Mithridatium and Galene from the 1756 edition. Not all western European countries were so quick to expunge these formulations, for Galene with its vipers appears in the German Pharmacopoeia of 1872 and in the French Pharmacopoeia of 1884. 

Bucquet [1773] vol. I pp. 73-120 and xii. The latter two juices or extracts were mentioned in the part onihe Medicamenta Simplicia of the Paris pharmacopoeia (see Boyer [1758]) the Juice of Hypocistis was hsted in the catalogue of simples contained in the Edinburgh pharmacopoeia of 1737. The fact that Bucquet knew these pharmacopoeias as well as the London dispensatory can be taken from an expUcit quotation with respect to an extracto-resinous Juice see Bucquet [1773] p. 82. 

Lewis, W (1753) The New Dispensatory Containing I. The Theory and Practice of Pharmacy, n. A Distribution of MEDICINAL SIMPLES, according to their virtues and sensible Qualities the Description, Use, and Dose of each Article. HI. A full translation of the LONDON and EDINBURGH PHARMACOPOEIAS, with the Use, Dose c. of the several Medicines. IV. Directions for EXTEMPORANEOUS PRESCRIPTION with a select number of elegant EORMS. V. A collection of CHEAP REMEDIES for the Use of the POOR. The Whole Interspersed With Practical Cautions and O Observations. Intended as a CORRECTION, and IMPROVEMENT of Quincy, 1st edn. J. Nourse, London, p 10... 

In ancient times, poison-hemlock seed was collected green, dried and stored to be used medicinally as a sedative. The dried leaf and juice of Conium maculatum L. (Hemlock) were listed in pharmacopoeias of London and Edinburgh from 1864 to 1898, and the last official record appeared in Great Britain in the British Pharmaceutical Codex of 1934. Interest in the medicinal value of poison-hemlock has declined because of the unpredictability of its effects. The unpredictability is now understood, the toxin profile and concentration in the plant and green seed can vary dramatically because of environmental factors or, even, diurnally. 

The first authoritative monographs related to wound dressing materials appeared in early London and Edinburgh hospital dispensatories and later in the British Pharmaceutical Codices. The development of wound management products can be traced by examining these Codices together with the British Pharmacopoeia. The information is reflected in similar publications in the United States Pharmacopoeia and other national standards. 

In 1858, the Medical Act created the General Medical Council, one of whose duties was to compile an official pharmacopoeia for the whole of the United Kingdom to supersede the three current ones for London, Edinburgh and Dublin. The first British Pharmacopoeia was published in 1864 (the 1958 and 1993 editions were published by the Health Ministers on the recommendations of the Medicines Commission vide infra). 

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