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Anthony C. Cartwright. The British Pharmacopoeia, 1864 to 2014: Medicines, International Standards and the State. Surrey, UK: Ashgate, 2015. xvii + 243 pp. Ill. $124.95 (978-1-4724-2032-9).
Pharmacopoeias have been an important feature of medicine for centuries. They have served to codify pharmaceutical and therapeutic knowledge, provided a mechanism for states to control harmful substances, and acted as a means of regulating trade. Study of the history of pharmacopoeias, as collections of approved medicines and formulas, offers a window into a wide range of issues including the often challenging relationships between medical and pharmaceutical practitioners. The first Edinburgh Pharmacopoeia in 1699 had its origins in disputes between the physicians and the surgeon-apothecaries; and it was the Medical Act of 1858 that gave the General Medical Council powers that included production of a new publication, the British Pharmacopoeia (BP), which would replace the existing Edinburgh, Dublin, and London Pharmacopoeias.
In this book Cartwright illustrates the shifting nature of the BP's purpose, its contents, and its intended audience, over the 150 years from 1864 to 2014. Its function evolved from a list of suitable drugs...