STANDARDS FOR MEDICINES— COOK 443 



made medicines to the retailer, and this relatively new problem made it 

 necessary to introduce tests and standards to check the products 

 which were being sold. This began a new phase in pharmacopoeial 

 activity and largely altered the appearance and character of the book. 

 There was the same careful selection of therapeutically important 

 substances, based upon the needs of the medical profession, and in 

 many instances there remained the manufacturing formulas for those 

 who desired to use them, but the outstanding new feature was a 

 series of tests and assays whereby the finished product could be 

 subjected to a check upon its quality and even rejected if there was 

 failure to meet the requirements. 



With the expansion of the services of the manufacturing pharmacist 

 and chemist, the Pharmacopoeia dropped most of the methods of 

 production for chemicals and also many manufacturing processes for 

 pharmaceuticals. These were excluded because it was now no longer 

 possible to make them in the shop of the apothecary with any degree 

 of economy, but proportionally the tests for strength and quality in- 

 creased. Tests and assays have now been still further expanded and 

 are an essential part of the modern pharmacopoeia. Up to this 

 time, practically all of the important nations of the world had their 

 own pharmacopoeias. With the increase in travel throughout the 

 world there began to be agitated, during the latter part of the nine- 

 teenth century, the idea of an international effort for the standardi- 

 zation of medicines. The fact that patients who had secured medi- 

 cines in one country later had difficulty in having their prescriptions 

 renewed elsewhere was the excuse for such agitation. Great varia- 

 tions in the strength of preparations and even in the quality of drug 

 was shown to be true in different national pharmacopoeias, and con- 

 siderable effort was made to develop what would be known as an 

 international pharmacopoeia. But this did not meet with general 

 favor. This is natural, since national pride enters into the publica- 

 tion and also fundamental differences in the practices of various 

 nations, so that strong opposition developed immediately. 



The nations were not able or willing to agree upon one book of 

 standards or formulas for medicines, and the idea of an international 

 pharmacopoeia was abandoned. However, there came a happy sug- 

 gestion, originated apparently by the pharmacists of Brussels. This 

 embodied the idea of setting up international agreements for specific 

 items, these to be the more potent medicines. On the invitation of 

 the Belgian Government, the various nations of the world were asked 

 to send delegates to Brussels to consider the establishment of such 

 standards, and the first conference was convened in 1902. 



By the plan announced, no nations would be influenced or per- 

 suaded against their wills to adopt in their forthcoming pharmaco- 

 poeias the recommended strengths. On the other hand, there would 



