PREFACE. 
The calendar year covered the present bulletin was one of 
unusual interest and activity in matters relating to the Pharmacopoeia 
of the United States. The enactment of “ The Food and Drugs Act, 
June 30, 1906, ’’ followed, as it was, by the signing of the “Agreement 
between the United States and other Powers respecting the unifica- 
tion of the Pharmacopceial formulas ” b}^ a diplomatic representative 
of the United States Government, involves the evolution of an inde- 
pendent, more or less local, and purely academic book into an offi- 
cially recognized legal standard, for the development of which the 
Federal Government itself has by treaty incurred obligations which 
are international in character. 
The recognition of the Pharmacopoeia of the United States and of 
the National Formulary as the legal standards under the provisions 
of The Food and Drugs Act, June 30, 1906, the importance of pure 
drugs in the development and maintenance of the public health, and 
the tremendous financial interests involved in the manufacture and 
sale of medicinal agents, present a problem that will require careful 
study and a maximum amount of disinterested information. 
If the Pharmacopoeia of the United States is to maintain its present 
status as the official standard for determining the purity and strength 
of widely used medicaments, it would appear desirable that the great 
est possible amount of consideration be given to practices in other 
countries, and an effort has been made in the present series of com- 
ments to collate from foreign pharmaceutical and chemical journals 
such data as relate to the articles official in the U. S. P. and those 
widely used in this country. 
The need for the compilation of this material from foreign jour- 
nals and the consideration of the contents of foreign pharmacopoeias 
is further emphasized by the treaty negotiated by a diplomatic rep- 
resentative of the United States Government in signing the “Agree- 
ment between the United States and other Powers respecting the uni- 
fication of the Pharmacopceial formulas for potent drugs ” at Brus- 
sels, November 29, 1906. 
On that occasion the Government of the United States formulated 
a reservation stating that: 
The Government of the United States does not assume, by the fact of signing 
the present Agreement, any other obligation beyond that of exercising its influ- 
ence in order that, at the next revision of the American Pharmacopoeia, the 
latter may be brought into harmony with the said Agreement. 
(T) 
