AFebma^Pi9iom'}       Pharmacognosy  and  the  US. P.  53 
nosy  which  should  be  included  in  the  Pharmacopoeia,  leaving  the 
problems  and  studies  in'  pure  pharmacognosy  for  the  text-books 
and  reference  books. 
That  part  of  the  U.  S.  Pharmacopoeia  VIII  devoted  to  pharma- 
cognosy is  not  only  not  abreast  with  the  other  departments  of  thi? 
work,  but,  furthermore,  when  this  part  is  compared  with  that  in 
the  foreign  pharmacopoeias  it  is  found  to  be  lacking  in  important 
particulars.  This  would  lead  to  the  conclusion  that  we  in  this 
country  not  only  do  not  recognize  the  importance  of  the  subject  but 
that  we  are  more  or  less  indifferent  to  the  nature  of  the  drugs  which 
we  employ.  That  this  condition,  or  worse,  still  prevails,  is  shown 
by  the  expressed  desire  to  eliminate  standards  for  crude  drugs.  It 
has  been  proposed  to  permit  all  grades  of  crude  drugs  to  be  admitted 
to  this  country  and  to  be  sold  and  used  in  the  making  of  galenicals, 
the  only  provision  suggested  being  that  the  finished  preparations 
shall  be  standardized.  Apart  from  the  many  objections  that  can 
be  raised  against  such  a  procedure,  as,  for  example,  the  inadequacy 
of  the  assay  processes  themselves  to  confirm  the  identity  of  the 
drug  on  the  one  hand  or  its  full  medicinal  value  on  the  other,  there 
are  other  practical  difficulties  in  the  way.  To  illustrate,  Dr.  J.  M. 
Francis  states  in  commenting  on  the  results  of  his  assay  of  many 
thousands  of  pounds  of  belladonna  root  of  the  market,  that,  "  While 
theoretically  an  increased  quantity  of  poor  drug  will  make  a  good 
fluidextract,  if  the  latter  be  standardized  by  assay,  there  are, 
however,  practical  objections  to  using  an  excessive  quantity  of  drug, 
as  the  fluid  will  be  highly  charged  with  extractive  matter  and  will 
not  keep  well." 
On  the  face  of  it,  it  is  not  reasonable  to  suppose  or  believe  that 
a  good  fluidextract  or  tincture  can  be  made  from  a  poor  drug  any 
more  than  to  suppose  that  good  malt  can  be  prepared  from  barley 
grains  of  poor  quality  or  a  good  extract  of  beef  from  meat  of  poor 
quality.  It  is  true  that  a  certain  amount  of  alkaloid  may  be  extracted 
in  some  instances  from  a  mouldy,  wormy,  or  otherwise  inferior 
drug,  but  no  one  would  contend  that  in  the  majority  of  cases  the 
medicinal  properties  of  a  tincture,  fluidextract,  or  infusion  are 
wholly  dependent  upon  the  percentage  of  one  such  principle  alone 
or  that  the  preparations  would  be  as  good  in  other  respects  as  those 
made  from  drugs  of  good  quality.  If,  however,  this  be  contended, 
then  the  better  procedure  would  be  to  use  the  alkaloids  and  other 
isolated  principles  themselves.    Discussing  this  question  in  a  recent 
