258  Progress  in  Pharmacy.  { Am jSeri£oarm" 
ception ;  between  a  pharmacopoeia  for  the  future  along  the  lines 
laid  down  by  the  originators  of  the  American  Pharmacopoeia,  or  a 
book  of  standards  for  the  thousand  and  one  articles  that  have 
been  and  are  being  used  as  medicine  without  any  definite  knowledge 
of  how  or  why.  .  .  .  Which  will  it  be,  a  repetition  of  the  stagnation 
evidenced  in  1870,  or  of  the  progress  recorded  in  1880?  The 
delegates  present  at  the  convention  will  decide,  and  the  people  at 
large  will  be  benefited  or  injured  by  their  decision  to  the  extent 
to  which  it  will  foster  or  retard  progress  in  the  science  of  medicine.'' 
An  editorial  in  the  New  York  Medical  Journal  (May  14,  1910, 
p.  1020)  commenting  on  the  Pharmacopceial  Convention,  says  in 
part: 
"  The  only  important  difference  of  opinion  which  arose  in  the 
Convention  was  regarding  the  scope  of  the  Pharmacopoeia.  In 
discussing  the  principles  laid  down  by  the  Convention  for  the 
guidance  of  the  Committee  of  Revision  some  of  the  members  of 
the  Convention  desired  to  limit  the  scope  of  the  Pharmacopoeia 
so  as  to  make  it  available  as  a  text  book,  while  others  wished 
to  widen  its  scope  so  as  to  include  all  medicinal  substances  in 
general  use,  whether  of  approved  therapeutic  value  or  not.  While 
the  recommendation  to  the  Committee  of  Revision  was .  general 
in  character,  its  purport  was  in  favor  of  widening  of  the  scope. 
The  Convention  took  the  ground  that  the  extent  to  which  a  drug 
was  used  was  a  safer  criterion  of  its  availability  for  introduction 
into  the  Pharmacopoeia  than  the  expression  of  expert  opinion  re- 
garding its  therapeutic  value.  Consequently  the  use  rather  than 
the  therapeutic  value  of  a  drug  will  be  taken  as  a  guide  by  the 
committee  regarding  admissions  and  deletions. 
"  The  election  of  Dr.  Harvey  W.  Wiley,  chief  of  the  Bureau 
of  Chemistry  of  the  United  States  Department  of  Agriculture, 
and  charged  in  his  official  capacity  with  the  enforcement  of  the 
Food  and  Drugs  Act,  to  the  presidency  of  the  Convention  gives 
assurance  of  complete  harmony  between  the  Government  and  the 
Committee  of  Revision.  The  substitution  in  this  office  of  a  chemist 
and  government  official  for  a  physician  and  therapeutist  may  be 
taken  as  indicative  of  the  change  in  the  status  of  the  Pharmacopoeia 
from  that  of  a  purely  academic  pronouncement  to  a  book  of  legal 
standards." 
The  general  principles  adopted  by  the  Convention  for  the 
guidance  of  the  Committee  of  Revision  are  well  worthy  careful 
