THE JOURNAIv OF PHARMACOLOGY. 137 



Proprietary Articles. — The convention was called upon to consider two 

 distinct grounds of opposition to proprietary articles. 



First, there was the purely ethical antagonism to recognizing such rights, 

 or contributing to their interests. Second, the purely practical question 

 of controlling by official standards the nature and quality of the articles. 

 Against these, there stood professional inconvenience and the inconsis- 

 tency of excluding from the Pharmacopoeia a very important part of the 

 Materia Medica in common use. The latter interest prevailed against the 

 ethical antagonism referred to, but could not overcome the essential con- 

 ditions of the second objection. Therefore, every proprietary article, to 

 secure introduction, must be either a product of nature of known origin 

 or a synthetized product of definite composition, the identity, purity or 

 strength of which can be determined. It must also be in common use by 

 the medical profession. Furthermore, its mode of manufacture must not 

 be kept secret, nor can it be controlled by unlimited proprietary or patent 

 rights. The last is a faulty expression, as patent rights cannot be un- 

 limited, but the error is a harmless one. This provision, it will be noticed, 

 excludes copyrighted names, as a copyright is an " unlimited proprietary 

 right." Some inconsistency may be discovered by the committee between 

 this requirement and that in the section on " Nomenclature " which calls 

 for the choosing of titles in harmony with general usage, and convenient 

 for prescribing. However, the latter is in turn qualified by saying that 

 in the case of chemicals of a definite composition, a scientific name should 

 be given, at least as a synonym (note the use of a instead of the and of 

 the qualification " at least "). 



Disposition of Acciumdated Funds.— AX is not generally known that the 

 last committee encountered serious difficulty in regard to this matter. It 

 was openly claimed that the Committee, in the publication of the Pharma- 

 copceia, was independent, and that it was a co-partnership, and the parti- 

 tion of the funds was demanded. Acting under the best legal advice, the 

 committee held that the funds were the property of the Convention. They 

 therefore recommended a certain disposition, and this recommendation was 

 acted upon by the Convention. An honorarium of $25 per year was or- 

 dered paid to each member of the committee, the same amount ($250.00) to 

 go to the heirs of deceased members. One thousand dollars was ordered 

 paid over to the next committee for the work of revision, and arrangements 

 were made for the payment of the balance to the Convention. It was 

 stipulated, however, that the outgoing committee was to be released from 

 all responsibility for unpaid claims, before turning over these funds. 



hicorporation of the Convention. — It was the difficulty regarding funds 

 above referred to which stimulated the process of reorganization and in- 

 corporation. The study of this subject and the work preparatory to its 

 accomplishment, were chiefly performed by Dr. H. C. Wood and Professor 



