442 
Progress  in  Pharmacy. 
(  Am.  Jour.  Pharm 
(  September,  1910. 
interviews  with  M.  Derneville  and  M.  Schamelhout,  regarding  the 
International  Congress  of  Pharmacy  to  be  held  in  the  City  of 
Brussels,  September  I  to  4.  The  meetings  are  to  be  held  in  the 
Palais  des  Academies,  one  of  the  finest  buildings  of  its  kind  in 
Brussels,  and  the  proceedings  will  partake  of  a  scientific  as  well 
as  of  a  professional  character.  One  of  the  more  important  questions 
that  will  be  discussed  will  be  the  introduction  of  international 
methods  of  analysis  and  the  use  of  uniform  reagents.  Trade  in- 
terests will  also  be  discussed  at  length,  particularly  the  sale  of 
specialties  in  the  different  countries  and  the  formation  of  an  in- 
ternational federation  of  pharmacists'  associations. 
The  Revision  of  the  U.S. P. — Never  before  has  the  Pharma- 
copoeia of  the  United  States  attracted  the  attention  of  the  more 
progressive  members  of  the  medical  profession  to  the  extent  that 
is  now  evident,  and  it  would  appear  to  be  desirable  that  members 
of  the  U.S. P.  Committee  of  Revision  and  pharmacists  generally 
acquire  more  than  a  superficial  knowledge  of  the  interest  that  is 
being  evidenced  and  the  thoughts  that  are  being  voiced.  Many 
of  the  more  progressive  medical  men  appear  to  agree  with  Dr. 
Abraham  Flexner  who,  in  the  Report  on  -  Medical  Education  in 
the  United  States  and  Canada  (Carnegie  Foundation  for  the  Ad- 
vancement of  Teaching,  Bulletin  No.  4,  p.  63),  characterizes  the 
pharmacopoeia  as  "  the  traditional  encyclopedic  expression  of  the 
credulity  of  empiricism  in  medicine." 
Pharmacopoeia  Revision. — W.  A.  Bastedo  is  quoted  (/.  Am. 
M.  Ass.,  1910,  v.  55,  p.  166)  as  pointing  out  that  while  a  large 
comprehensive  pharmacopoeia  is  not  of  necessity  a  disadvantage 
and,  by  allowing  for  a  diversity  of  opinion,  may  be  an  advantage, 
medical  teaching  must  be  in  advance  of  the  profession  and  the 
selection  of  drugs  for  this  purpose  should  be  based  on  reliabU 
pharmacologic  and  clinical  data,  regardless  of  the  extent  of  their 
use. 
Therapeutics  as  it  Appears  from  the  Prescription  File. — 
Dr.  Julius  Noer  asserts  that  an  examination  of  many  thousands  of 
prescriptions  from  the  files  in  drug  stores  shows  prescriptions  by 
physicians  of  an  inordinate  mass  of  pseudotherapeutic  agents.  He 
believes  that  talismanic  therapeutics  did  not  die  with  Paracelsus, 
nor  has  the  mother  church  in  Boston  a  monopoly  as  a  promoter 
of  pseudoscience ;  and  that  the  excellent  work  of  the  Council  on 
Pharmacy  and  Chemistry  of  the  American  Medical  Association  is 
