470 
Nati o rial  Formulary . 
(Am  Jour.  Pliariii. 
t     October,  1908. 
which  call  for  the  foreign  preparations.  We  recommend  that  all 
formulas  in  the  National  Formulary  be  uniform  in  style,  whether 
they  originate  here  or  are  taken  from  foreign  authorities. 
ELIMINATIONS. 
Regarding  eliminations,  the  Committee  agrees  with  the  Chairman 
that  the  therapeutics  or  therapeutic  incompatibilities  of  N.  F.  prep- 
arations are  not  within  the  province  of  the  National  Formulary  Com- 
mittee. The  physician  may  be  reasonably  expected  to  know  what 
he  wants,  and  if  he  chooses  to  prescribe  preparations  which  are 
therapeutically  incompatible,  it  is  the  duty  of  the  pharmacist  to  sup- 
ply what  is  ordered.  The  Committee  therefore  feels  that  it  is  not 
justified  in  dismissing  or  rejecting  any  preparation  simply  because 
it  is  stated  to  be  therapeutically  absurd,  but  feels  it  to  be  our  duty 
to  supply  formulas  for  medicaments  which  may  be  prescribed  by 
physicians  if  the  demand  for  these  is  sufficient  to  justify  our  atten- 
tion, and  if  an  acceptable  formula  can  be  devised  or  obtained.  We 
think  that  some  such  statement  should  be  placed  in  the  preface  to 
the  next  edition  of  the  N.  F.  Individual  pharmacists  may  point  out 
the  absurdity  of  some  of  the  combinations  and  aim  to  discourage 
their  use  and  demand,  but  the  physician  must  decide  what  he 
wants,  and  if  his  therapeutics  are  at  fault,  it  is  not  within  the 
province  of  the  National  Formulary  to  officially  criticise  or  correct 
them.  Regarding  detailed  consideration  of  elimination  from  the 
Formulary,  the  Committee  wished  to  act  conservatively  and  the 
matter  has  been  referred  to  a  sub-committee,  which  will  report  on 
any  doubtful  article  on  the  basis  of  actual  demand  as  shown  by 
statistics  or  other  information. 
ADDITIONS  TO  THE  FORMULARY. 
Your  Committee  agrees  with  the  Chairman  that  the  acceptance 
of  formulas  for  any  new  preparation  should  be  based  upon  considera- 
tion of  merit  in  the  article,  of  demand  for  the  same,  and  upon  the 
reliability  of  any  formula,  which  may  be  offered.  On  the  other 
hand,  we  must  be  equally  careful  to  omit  no  meritorious  prepara- 
tions that  conform  to  these  requirements.  The  Formulary  may  also 
include  and  give  suitable  definitions  for  all  articles  that  serve  as 
ingredients  for  preparations  described  therein  and  for  which  no 
standard  of  quality  and  identification  is  given  in  the  U.  S.  P.,  for 
which  an  authoritative  standard  may  fail  to  be  adequate  for  a  correct 
recognition,  either  as  to  kind  or  quality. 
