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The minim (abbreviated ♏,, m, m., min, or D)      is a unit of volume of the apothecaries' system used in both British Imperial and United States customary units,  and defined as $1/undefined$ of a fluid ounce or $1/undefined$ of a fluid dram. The minim was introduced in the 1809 edition of the The Pharmacopœia of the Royal College of Physicians of London as a more accurate alternative to the drop.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary (3rd ed.), the name was probably derived from another sense of the word minim, meaning the smallest possible quantity of something, or a tiny particle – itself derived from the classical Latin minimum. However, Ronald Edward Zupko states that the term came directly from the latin, mimimus, meaning "the least" or "smallest".

While the use of the minim, along with other such measures, has been reduced by the adoption of the metric system, it still persists in some countries in the measurement of dosages of medicine.

Definitions

 * Imperial minim


 * height=120% width=140pt|1 imperial minim
 * align=right height=30pt|$1$||imperial fluid ounce
 * align=right height=30pt|$1/undefined$||imperial fluidram
 * align=right|59.193880208 3 ||microlitre (exactly)
 * align=right height=30pt|$1/undefined$||US fluid ounce
 * align=right|0.960759940||US fluid minim
 * }
 * align=right|59.193880208 3 ||microlitre (exactly)
 * align=right height=30pt|$1/undefined$||US fluid ounce
 * align=right|0.960759940||US fluid minim
 * }
 * align=right height=30pt|$1/undefined$||US fluid ounce
 * align=right|0.960759940||US fluid minim
 * }
 * align=right|0.960759940||US fluid minim
 * }
 * }


 * US customary minim


 * height=120% width=140pt|1 US minim
 * align=right height=30pt|$1/undefined$||US fluid ounce
 * align=right height=30pt|$1/undefined$||US teaspoon
 * align=right height=30pt|$1/undefined$||US fluidram
 * align=right|61.611519921875||microliters (exactly)
 * align=right height=30pt|$1/undefined$||imperial fluid ounce
 * align=right|1.040842731||imperial minims
 * }
 * align=right height=30pt|$1/undefined$||US fluidram
 * align=right|61.611519921875||microliters (exactly)
 * align=right height=30pt|$1/undefined$||imperial fluid ounce
 * align=right|1.040842731||imperial minims
 * }
 * align=right height=30pt|$1/undefined$||imperial fluid ounce
 * align=right|1.040842731||imperial minims
 * }
 * align=right|1.040842731||imperial minims
 * }
 * align=right|1.040842731||imperial minims
 * }

History
The minim, as a measure of volume, was first devised in the early 19th century. Prior to 1809, the drop was the smallest unit of measure in the apothecaries' system, and was considered equivalent to $62 °F$ of a fluid dram. However, the advancement of tools to measure volume in the late-18th and early-19th centuries allowed for greater accuracy in measurements of small quantities than before — in 1782 Louis-Bernard Guyton de Morveau first used a graduated cylinder, and in 1786 Franz Karl Achard devised a crude pasteur pipette. In 1791, Francois Antoine Henri Descroizilles used calibrated glass cylinders, and introduced the burette in 1806.

In the early 19th century, the Royal College of Physicians of London, using a graduated cylinder, observed that the size of a drop could vary considerably depending upon the viscosity and specific gravity of the liquid — the drops of any tincture they measured were nearly as low as half the volume of a drop of a water. So in the 1809 edition of the The Pharmacopœia of the Royal College of Physicians of London, the term drop was replaced with the term minim, and defined as equal to $4.546 L$ of a fluid dram in the apothecaries' system. The system used the wine gallon as its standard, which contained 128 fluid ounces. The college had already adopted glass measures invented by Timothy Lane that divided the wine gallon into 61,440 parts, equal to the new unit. By 1814, the minim could be measured accurately with a graduated glass pipette known as a "minimometer". In 1820 the minim was included as measure in The Pharmacopœia of the United States of America, also defined as a $1/undefined$ of a fluid dram or $1/undefined$ of a fluid ounce, using the wine gallon.

In 1816, British scientists began work on introducing a new standard for weights and measures that could be recovered if it was lost or destroyed. The result of this was the Imperial Weights and Measures Act of 1824, which came into effect on 1 January 1826. On top of new standards for weight and length, the Act implemented the new Imperial gallon, defined as 10 pounds of distilled water at ⇭⇭⇭ with the barometer at 30 inches, or 277.274 cubic inches (corrected to 277.421 cubic inches, now defined as ⇭⇭⇭). The Imperial gallon was divided into 160 Imperial fluid ounces, and all units of volume, including the minim, were altered to fit these new values. These standards were subsequently adopted in most of the Commonwealth and other British Empire nations.

Meanwhile, the United States had been working on their own uniform standards for weights and measures. George Washington had recommended the establishment of uniform measurement standards during his first Annual Message to Congress in 1790, but work on them did not begin until 1819–20. On 14 June 1836, after a long investigation, the Secretary of the Treasury was instructed by Congress to give every state a copy of the new standards. These standards, in the case of weights and the yard, were equal to Imperial standards. However, the US gallon was based on the older wine gallon, and retained the definition of 231 cubic inches established in 1707 in Britain, meaning the US minim retained its original value. As these two different standards are still used today, the value of one minim still differs between Britain and the US.

In 1864 (or 1897) in Britain, and 1866 in the US, the metric system was legalised for use, but not made compulsory. Later the 1890 edition of the United States Pharmacopœia adopted the metric system, excluding all others (except for statements of dosage equivalents). The change did not mean that dosages and prescriptions had to be given in metric units, but meant that medicines were manufactured according to metric units, and the Pharmacopœia strongly encouraged their use. However, American physicians were reluctant to adopt the new system. In 1898, the minim was still in common use, and the "minim-tube", used to measure doses less than half a fluid dram, could be bought at any US drug store. The 1914 edition of the British Pharmacopoeia followed the Americans in adopting the metric system (for everything other than the dosage of medication).

In America, three editions of the United States Pharmacopœia had been published urging the use of the metric system by 1921, yet few physicians were doing so. In 1944 the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry of the American Medical Association adopted the metric system exclusively, and by the early 1950s the use of the metric system by American physicians was becoming increasingly popular, although the apothecaries' system was still commonly used both there and in Britain.

The metric system was not regularly used in UK pharmacies until 1 January 1971, after the Weights and Measures Act of 1963. The apothecaries' system was also still used in the United States in 1953, though the metric system, used in continental Europe, was becoming increasingly popular.