Pharmacognosy  and  the  U.S.P. 
{  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
(   February,  1910. 
required  tests  and  use  the  knowledge  given,  but  primarily  to  include 
such  descriptions  and  tests  as  will  insure  the  quality  and  genuineness 
of  the  articles  both  under  vegetable  drugs  and  medicinal  chemicals. 
One  does  not  go  very  far  in  the  examination  of  these  books  without 
getting  the  idea  that  the  pharmacist  is  expected  to  have  the  neces- 
sary books  of  reference,  the  apparatus,  and  the  training  which  will 
enable  him  to  use  the  pharmacopoeia  in  determining  the  character 
of  the  products  therein  given.  While  some  of  these  pharmacopoeias 
do  not  include  tests  requiring  special  expensive  pieces  of  apparatus 
as  is  required  in  our  own  Pharmacopoeia,  as  in  the  tests  involving 
the  use  of  the  polariscope,  they  all  require  the  use  of  the  microscope. 
In  other  words,  the  foreign  pharmacopoeias  are  more  balanced  in 
their  treatment  of  the  various  subjects,  and  we  would  not  be  likely 
to  hear  the  comment  on  a  foreign  pharmacopoeia,  as  we  have  regard- 
ing our  own  standard,  that  it  is  a-"  chemist's  book." 
The  treatment  of  vegetable  drugs  in  the  foreign  pharmacopoeias 
may  be  quite  complete,  as  in  the  Netherlands  Pharmacopoeia,  where 
a  page  or  more  is  frequently  given  to  each  drug.  Or  it  may  be  what 
would  be  termed  adequate,  the  intention  being  that  the  user  shall 
be  familiar  with  the  structure  of  the  typical  drug  either  from  the 
study  of  the  drug  itself  or  the  books  of  reference,  as  in  the  Swiss 
Pharmacopoeia,  the  French  Codex,  the  Pharmacopoeia  of  Japan,  and 
others.  Besides,  in  a  number  of  foreign  pharmacopoeias  various 
constants  are  given,  including  percentage  of  ash,  percentage  of 
extractive,  as  also  various  special  tests,  some  of  these  being  micro- 
chemical.  Generally  speaking,  the  treatment  of  the  microscopic 
structure  is  an  essential  feature  of  the  descriptions,  and  may  be  of 
the  crude  drug  alone,  or  more  especially  of  the  powdered  or  ground 
drug,  or  of  both.  In  some  of  these  pharmacopoeias  powdered  drugs 
are  not  recognized  or  only  occasionally  referred  to,  probably  from  a 
recognition  of  the  difficulty  of  identifying  and  determining  the  per- 
centage of  impurity  or  admixture,  and  also  perhaps  in  view  of  the 
fact  that  very  many  drugs  deteriorate  or  lose  certain  desirable  prop- 
erties when  in  the  comminuted  condition.  As  one  goes  through  these 
pharmacopoeias  he  is  impressed  by  the  fact  that  there  are  standards 
for  vegetable  drugs  as  there  are  for  medicinal  chemicals  and  the 
adequate  descriptions  and  special  tests  correspond  to  the  identity 
tests  given  for  chemicals,  and  the  revisers  have  availed  themselves 
of  the  scientific  progress  that  has  been  made  in  all  lines  touching 
their  own  work. 
