270  U.  S.  Pharmacopoeial  Convention,  {Amj^"iS^rm' 
prescription  compounded  of  the  same  strength  in  any  city  of  a  Nation  party 
to  the  Conference.  The  Committee  on  Revision  of  the  U.  S.  Pharmacopceial 
Convention  has  in  great  measure  conformed  to  the  recommendation  of  the 
meeting  at  Brussels.  The  failure  to  do  so  completely  seems  to  me  the  one 
blot  on  their  work. 
Nov.  nth,  1908,  I  received  from  the  Acting  Secretary  of  State  a 
translation  copy  of  a  letter  from  the  Belgian  Legation  concerning  the 
creation  of  a  permanent  institution,  to  be  called  the  International  Secretariate 
for  the  Unification  of  Pharmacopoeias,  located  at  Brussels,  its  expenses  to 
be  paid  by  annual  quotas  from  the  adhering  nations.  In  reply,  I  wrote 
to  the  Hon.  Robert  Bacon  that  such  a  Secretariate  seemed  to  me  so 
foreign  to  the  immediate  objects  of  the  U.  S.  Pharmacopceial  Convention, 
and  so  open  to  the  possibilities  of  serious  pecuniary  responsibilities,  that  I 
personally  could  not  endorse  it,  but  would  refer  the  matter  to  the  U.  S. 
Pharmacopoeial  Convention  of  1910.  I  have  heard  nothing  further  con- 
cerning this  subject,  and  have  transferred  all  my  correspondence  to  Dr. 
Murray  G.  Motter,  Secretary  of  the  U.  S.  Pharmacopoeial  Convention.  With 
this  information  I  leave  this  subject  to  be  decided  as  may  be  thought 
fit  by  you. 
The  address  of  Professor  Joseph  P.  Remington,  Chairman  of 
the  Revision  Committee  was  devoted  in  large  part  to  a  summary 
of  the  results  achieved  and  the  trend  of  events  during  the  past 
ten  years.  He  pointed  out  the  grave  responsibilities  connected 
with  the  work  of  the  next  revision  of  the  Pharmacopoeia  and 
stated  that  the  Committee  would  receive  greater  aid  from  manu- 
facturers and  importers  than  heretofore  and  that  the  next  Com- 
mittee would  be  embarrassed  with  riches  rather  than  a  lack  of 
information  and  that  the  greatest  difficulty  will  be  to  make  a 
wise  selection  for  the  U.  S.  P.  IX.  He  also  referred  to  the 
fact  that  the  health  and  well-being  of  the  nation  depends  in  a 
large  measure  upon  the  work  of  the  Convention  and  that  if  the 
Committee  of  Revision  fails  to  recognize  the  responsibilities  of 
the  situation  the  sceptre  must  pass  from  the  hands  of  the  Con- 
vention forever. 
It  was  fitting  that  the  Chairman  of  the  Revision  Committee 
should  give  due  credit  to  Professor  Diaz  for  his  services  in  the 
Spanish  translation  of  the  U.  S.  Pharmacopoeia  and  also  to  Sur- 
geon-General, Dr.  Walter  Wyman  for  his  co-operation  in  fixing 
the  standards  for  Diphtheria  Antitoxin  and  especially  in  the 
preparation  of  the  "  Digest  of  Comments  "  on  the  Eighth  Decennial 
Revision. 
Professor  Remington  as  Chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Re- 
