Apothecaries' system measure precious metals and stones. (The troy pound was already declared illegal for most other uses by the Weights and Measures Act of 1878.) In the US, the metric system replaced the apothecaries' system in the United States Pharmacopoeia of 1971. Apothecaries' system The apothecaries' system or apothecaries' weights and measures is a historical system of mass and volume units that were used by physicians and apothecaries for medical recipes, and also sometimes by scientists. The English version of the system is closely related to the English troy system of weights, the pound and grain being exactly the same in
Metallurgical assay on the composition of the rock in which the precious metals are concentrated, and in many laboratories an empirical approach based on long experience is used. A complex reaction takes place, whereby the carbon source reduces the lead oxide to lead, which alloys with the precious metals: at the same time, the fluxes combine with the crushed rock, reducing its melting point and forming a glassy slag. When fusion is complete, the sample is tipped into a mold (usually iron) where the slag floats to the top, and the lead, now alloyed with the precious metals, sinks to the bottom,