440 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1937 



are Paris, Antwerp, Brussels, Edinburgh, Dublin, and others under 

 the names of countries, as Prussia, Saxony, Wiirttemberg, and Spain. 



PHARMACOPOEIA OF THE UNITED STATES 



It was chiefly the Pharmacopoeias of London and Edinburgh, 

 however, which inspired the first edition of our own United States 

 Pharmacopoeia. 



To now turn to our own pharmacopoeia. We are accustomed, 

 in this generation, to seeing strings of the letters of the alphabet 

 everywhere we turn. This is so common that one wonders if there 

 might not be a deficiency and a need for new symbols to express the 

 many governmental or other activities constantly before the pubhc. 

 This custom was widely established during the World War (1914- 

 18), largely in the British Army, but has developed to a maximum 

 in our own period of the New Deal (1933-36). However, long 

 before the alphabetic symbols of the World War or the New Deal 

 were thrust upon us there have been known and used by physicians 

 and pharmacists three significant letters. They are "U. S, P." 

 Today these are often seen by the pubUc, and should have a meaning 

 to the everj^day man commensurate with the miportance which 

 they hold in relation to health. "U. S." aaturally means the United 

 States. "P." stands for a word long established but not often used 

 by the public — the word "Pharmacopoeia." 



These letters, "U. S. P.", are frequently found upon labels of medici- 

 nal substances. They follow the title and indicate that the material 

 in the package or bottle maintains the standards of strength and 

 purity estabhshed by the Pharmacopoeia of the United States. WTien 

 a pharmacist orders medicinal substances for use in manufacture or 

 in the filling of prescriptions, he usually writes "U. S. P." on the 

 order. By this means he is assured of a high-grade product, uniform 

 in quality and suitable and safe for medicinal use. If, when the 

 layman enters a di'ug store and purchases certain of the commonly 

 used and well-estabUshed home medicines, he insists upon having 

 U. S. P. quahty, there is the same protection for him as for those 

 connected with the professions. 



Uniformity in quality such as is now insured by U. S. P. standards 

 was not always obtainable. The development of superior quahty 

 and consequent eflSciency in medicinal substances represents many 

 years of cooperative eflfort on the part of physicians, pharmacists, 

 and the Government. We are fortunate in having at our command 

 this accumulated experience and an organization which estabUshes 

 standards for medicine within the United States. 



As has already been intimated, it was customary in the American 

 colonies for ph3"sicians and apothecaries to employ the pharmacopoeias 

 of Europe as the basis for the medicines. These were generally 



