Am.  Jour.  Pharra.1 
September,  1908.  / 
Progress  in  Pharmacy. 
441 
PROGRESS  IN  PHARMACY. 
A  QUARTERLY    REVIEW  OF  SOME  OF  THE  MORE  INTERESTING 
LITERATURE  RELATING  TO  PHARMACY. 
By  M.  I.  WlLBERT, 
Apothecary  at  the  German  Hospital. 
The  Annual  Meetings  of  the  State  Pharmaceutical  Associations 
that  were  held  during  the  past  three  months  have  attracted  an  un- 
usual amount  of  attention.  These  meetings  were  generally  well 
attended  and,  from  available  reports,  an  unusual  amount  of  time 
appears  to  have  been  devoted  to  the  reading  and  discussion  of  scien- 
tific papers. 
Pennsylvania  easily  leads  in  the  number  as  well  as  the  variety  of 
communications  that  were  presented,  though  the  reports  of  practi- 
cally all  of  the  State  Association  meetings  show  a  decided  increase 
of  interest  in  the  technical  side  of  the  pharmaceutical  calling.  Legis- 
lation and  other  economic  features  connected  with  the  drug  business 
were  also  discussed  quite  freely.  Among  the  numerous  suggestions 
for  improving  the  economic  conditions  of  the  retail  druggist,  the 
systematic  development  of  the  U.S.P.  and  N.F.  propaganda  appears 
to  have  met  with  general  favor.  In  this  connection  it  is  to  be  regret- 
ted that  the  fundamental  need  of  this  propaganda,  the  systematic 
education  of  the  retail  druggist  himself,  has  been  (generally  over- 
looked. 
How  really  pressing  this  need  is  was  evidenced  by  the  statement 
made  by  Prof.  J.  Hartley  Beal,  the  official  drug  inspector  of  Ohio, 
who  found  that  only  58-2  per  cent,  of  the  drug  stores  that  were 
visited  in  the  State  of  Ohio  possessed  a  copy  of  the  U.S.P.  VIII,  and 
in  only  31*1  per  cent,  of  the  stores  did  he  fyid  a  copy  of  the  N.F, 
III. 
Similar  conditions  were  reported  from  North  Dakota,  by  Food 
Commissioner  Ladd,  who,  in  a  complete  canvass  of  that  progressive 
commonwealth  found  that  out  of  190  retail  druggists  in  the  State, 
1 24,  or  a  fraction  more  than  65  per  cent.,  possessed  copies  of  the 
eighth  revision  of  the  Pharmacopoeia  of  the  United  States. 
Pure  Drug  Bill  in  New  York,  referred  to  in  a  previous  number  of 
this  Journal  (June,  1908,  page  287),  was  vetoed  by  Governor 
Hughes.  At  the  recent  meeting  of  the  New  York  State  Pharma- 
ceutical Association  the  reasons  for  this  veto  were  liberally  discussed 
