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Incoming links: Avoirdupois pound
Avoirdupois ounce 2026-10-31
The 1864 solid units are the avoirdupois pound, avoirdupois ounce and grain; the liquid units are the Imperial measures. The grain is unchanged, while the old apothecaries' pound and ounce are not the units of the new formulary. [ref]
The Prescriber's Analysis of the British Pharmacopoeia by John Birkbeck Nevins (1864). pp. 16–17, change of weights and unchanged liquid measures
- one grain: , about ;
- one avoirdupois ounce: ;
- one avoirdupois pound: .
- one minim: ;
- one fluid drachm: ;
- one fluid ounce: ;
- one Imperial pint: ;
- one Imperial gallon: .
A millilitre is a cubic centimetre, and a litre is a cubic decimetre. These displayed equivalents are rounded; small differences from a period table's last digits reflect rounding and historical calibration conventions. A fluid ounce is a volume and an avoirdupois ounce is a mass. They cannot be interchanged for an arbitrary liquid without its density. Likewise, a drop is not a defined minim: its volume depends on the liquid and the dropper.
[ref]
NIST Guide to the SI. Appendix B.8, grain, avoirdupois pound and ounce, Imperial gallon and fluid measures; modern rounded metric conversions
The 1864 preparations contain either crude opium or its aqueous Extractum Opii; those quantities must be distinguished from a quantity of isolated morphine. The following are the officinal opium preparations. Ratios for solids mean the mass fraction in the compounded preparation; liquid strengths specify mass per volume or the actual ingredients used.
- Emplastrum Opii: powdered opium in resin plaster: 1 in 10.
- Enema Opii: opium tincture 30 minims with starch decoction 2 fluid ounces. Thus the tincture is 1 volume to 32 volumes of vehicle, before mixing.
- Extractum Opii: aqueous solvent extraction of 1 avoirdupois pound of sliced opium with 6 Imperial pints of distilled water, in three successive portions, followed by evaporation. The prescribed starting quantities do not impose a fixed yield or a universal crude-drug-to-extract potency ratio.
- Extractum Opii Liquidum: Extractum Opii 1 avoirdupois ounce, distilled water 17 fluid ounces, rectified spirit 3 fluid ounces: 1 ounce of extract to the pint of liquid ingredients.
- Linimentum Opii: equal volumes of opium tincture and soap liniment: half the tincture's nominal opium strength.
- Pilula Opii: powdered opium with hard soap: 1 in 5 of the nominal pill ingredients.
- Pilula Plumbi cum Opio: powdered opium with lead acetate and confection of roses: 1 in 8.
- Pulvis Cretae Aromaticus cum Opio: powdered opium with aromatic chalk powder: 1 in 40.
- Pulvis Ipecacuanhae cum Opio: powdered opium with ipecacuanha and potassium sulfate: 1 in 10.
- Pulvis Kino cum Opio: powdered opium with kino and cinnamon: 1 in 20.
[ref]
The Essentials of Materia Medica and Therapeutics by Alfred Baring Garrod (1865). Papaverceae, part 2, British formulas outside the bracketed American additions; underlying revision dated May 1864
- Tinctura Camphorae cum Opio: opium 40 grains to 1 Imperial pint of proof spirit, with benzoic acid, camphor and anise oil: 2 grains of opium per fluid ounce.
- Opium tincture, Tinctura Opii: powdered opium 1½ avoirdupois ounces to 1 Imperial pint of proof spirit. Nominally this is 32.8125 grains per fluid ounce, or approximately 1 grain per 14.63 minims.
- Trochisci Opii: 72 grains of Extractum Opii in 720 lozenges: one tenth of a grain of extract per lozenge.
- Unguentum Gallae cum Opio: powdered opium 32 grains added to 1 avoirdupois ounce of gall ointment. The actual nominal total is grains, giving 32/469.5 by mass, approximately 1 in 14.67; “32 grains to the ounce of ointment taken” is not 32 grains per final ounce.
- Vinum Opii: powdered opium 1½ avoirdupois ounces, sherry 1 Imperial pint: the tincture's nominal opium proportion, in a different solvent. This formula uses crude opium, not Extractum Opii.
[ref]
The Essentials of Materia Medica and Therapeutics by Alfred Baring Garrod (1865). Papaverceae, part 3, British tincture, lozenge, ointment and wine formulas
The arithmetic uses the new avoirdupois ounce of 437.5 grains, not the old apothecaries' ounce of 480 grains. These are historical formulation proportions, not modern assays of morphine delivered after solvent extraction. Confectio Opii was omitted in 1864, and this edition's Vinum Opii contains no spices. The separate morphine hydrochloride preparations—Liquor Morphiae Hydrochloratis, Suppositoria Morphiae, Trochisci Morphiae, and Trochisci Morphiae et Ipecacuanhae—contain an isolated alkaloid salt rather than crude opium. [ref]
The Prescriber's Analysis of the British Pharmacopoeia by John Birkbeck Nevins (1864). pp. 11–12, 39 and 75–76