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it is obvious that the various preparations are presented to view more conveniently than if they were inserted in detached portions of the work, under the separate headings of Infusions, Tinctures, Extracts, and so forth. All difficulties with regard to reference are obviated by a carefully prepared and extensive Index.
It was also decided to include in the present work, all the drugs which are officinal in the British Pharmacopoeia. Some of these, which require to be used in the fresh state, are, of course, unavailable in India; others, from readily undergoing decomposition at high temperatures, are unsuited for use in the tropics. These, together with a few minor articles for which India yields efficient substitutes, it was at first thought might safely be omitted without detracting from the utility of the work to the Indian practitioner. But it was decided not to omit any of them; so that the student in India, where this work may be adopted as a Text Book, will have brought before him, in due course, all the articles which are officinal in Great Britain, while the notes appended will indicate their value and applicability to Indian practice.
In endeavouring to impart an educational character to the Indian Pharmacopoeia, the Committee feel that they have taken the surest mode of carrying into effect one of the primary objects of the work, namely, the introduction of the indigenous products of India into European practice in that country. If they are ever to come into general use in hospitals and dispensaries throughout India, it is to the medical colleges and schools that we must look in the first instance. It is there that a correct knowledge of them should be first instilled; that the student should become familiarized with the articles themselves; that he should be made acquainted with their physical characters and medicinal properties; and it is there, during the period of student life, that he should become practically instructed in their employment in the treatment of disease. On the
