Am.  Jour.  Pbarm. 
March,  1908. 
P-r ogress  in  Pharmacy, 
135 
The  surmise  that  Congress  would  be  tempted  to  modify  or  amend 
the  Federal  law  at  an  early  date  appears  to  have  been  well  founded, 
as  at  least  several  bills  amending  the  Pure  Food  and  Drugs  Act  are 
now  pending  in  committee,  though  it  is  hoped  they  will  be  allowed 
to  remain  securely  pigeonholed  until  the  law  has  been  sufficiently 
tested  to  demonstrate  its  shortcomings  and  needs. 
One  of  the  proposed  amendments,  introduced  by  Senator  Gallin- 
ger,  of  New  Hampshire,  proposes  to  make  the  Homeopathic  Phar- 
macopoeia of  the  United  States  a  drug  standard  of  equal  standing 
with  the  Pharmacopoeia  of  the  United  States.  Apart  from  the  fact 
that  legislation  of  this  kind  would  appear  to  be  introducing  con- 
flicting standards,  it  has  been  pointed  out  that  the  Homeopathic 
Pharmacopoeia  of  the  United  States  is  but  one  of  several  homeo- 
pathic pharmacopoeias  that  are  now  in  use  in  this  country,  and  that 
it  is  not  generally  recognized  by  homeopathic  practitioners. 
A  bill  that  has  been  introduced  in  the  House  by  Representative 
Mann,  of  Illinois,  is  designed  to  correct  the  abuse  that  has  grown 
out  of  the  form  of  guarantee  that  is  now  allowed  on  the  label. 
Practically  the  same  object  is  sought  by  a  bill  that  has  been  intro- 
duced in  the  Senate  by  Senator  Heyburn. 
While  it  is  true  that  the  present  style  of  guarantee  has  been 
abused  to  some,  extent,  attention  is  being  called  to  the  fact  that 
manufacturers  and  others  have  but  recently  accommodated  them- 
selves to  the  provisions  of  the  Food  and  Drugs  Act,  and  it  would  be 
a  hardship  to  compel  them  to  destroy  their  stock  of  labels,  now  on 
hand,  and  revise  the  form  of  guarantee  to  conform  with  the  modifi- 
cation proposed  by  either  of  the  proposed  measures. 
The  U.S. P..  and  N.F.  propaganda  is  attracting  considerable  atten- 
tion in  various  parts  of  the  country.  Retail  pharmacists  appear  to 
have  been  uniformly  successful  in  calling  the  attention  of  phy- 
sicians to  the  articles  official  in  the  Pharmacopoeia  and  the  National 
Formulary. 
It  has  been  pointed  out  repeatedly  that  if  this  propaganda  is  to 
meet  with  the  continued  success  that  it  rightfully  deserves,  retail 
pharmacists  must  take  cognizance  of  their  own  shortcomings,  from 
a  scientific  point  of  view,  and  endeavor  to  meet  the  increased  de- 
mands that  will  be  made  on  them.  They  will  also  be  required  to 
recognize  their  sins  of  omission  and  commission  in  connection  with 
the  nostrum  traffic,  and  correct  at  least  many,  if  not  all,  of  the  abuses 
