Dispensatory of the United States. 153 



the knowledge and experience of our chemists and physicians. A 

 national medical convention accordingly met at Washington and pro- 

 vided for the publication of a pharmacopoeia. This work was pub- 

 lished in New York, in 1820, but it did not appear to attract general 

 attention, or satisfy the demands of the profession. At the decen- 

 nial meeting of the convention, held in Washington, in 1 830, a re- 

 vised edition of it was ordered, which was published in Philadelphia, 

 in 1831.* Of the superior accuracy of this pharmacopoeia over any 

 other, published or republished in this country, there cannot, we think, 

 be any doubt. 



But a pharmacopoeia, published under the authority of a board of 

 physicians or licensed apothecaries, and limited as such works gen- 

 erally are to officinal titles, objects and preparations, is not sufficient 

 to satisfy the mind of the student, (and what physician ceases to be 

 a student with respect to the natural history, preparation, and various 

 qualities, chemical and physical, of the multifarious substances which 

 his profession calls for,) who aims at a clear and accurate compre- 

 hension of the materia medica. It is justly, therefore, stated by our 

 authors, that the " national pharmacopoeia requires an explanatory 

 commentary, in order that its precepts may be fully appreciated and 

 advantageously put in practice. On these accounts, (say they,) it is 

 desirable that there should be a Dispensatory of the United States, 

 which, while it embraces whatever Is useful in European pharmacy, 

 may accurately represent the art as it exists in this country, and give 

 instruction adapted to our peculiar wants." The voice of every 

 American physician will doubtless respond to this opinion, and no 

 less freely to the sentiment of the authors, that " It appears due to 

 our national character, that such a work should be in good faith an 

 American work, newly prepared in all its parts, and not a mere edi- 

 tion of one of the European dispensatories, with here and there ad- 

 ditions and alterations, which, though they may be useful in them- 

 selves, cannot be made to harmonize with the other materials, so as 

 to give to the whole an appearance of unity, and certainly would not 

 justify the assumption of a new and national title for the book." 



With these enlightened views of the nature of the task before 

 them, it is not to be presumed that they entered upon the determi- 

 nation to write a " United States Dispensatory," without a becoming 

 sense of the fertility of their resources, and we have thus a sort of 



* Vide Am. Jour. Vol. XXI, p. 177. 



Vol. XXIV.— No. 1. 20 



