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EDITORIAL. 
The  Dispensatory  of  the  United  States  of  America.  By  George  B. 
"Wood,  M.D.,  &c.  and  Franklin  Bache,  M.D.,  &c.  Tenth  edition,  carefully 
revised,    Philadelphia,  Lippincott,  Grambo  &  Co.,  1854  ;  pp.  1480  octavo. 
The  appearance  of  the  tenth  edition  of  the  Dispensatory  so  soon  after  the 
edition  of  July,  1851,  is  solid  evidence  of  the  esteem  in  which  this  truly 
American  work  is  held  by  the  medical  and  pharmaceutical  professions,  es- 
pecially when  it  is  understood  that  both  editions  have  extended  to  ten  thou- 
sand copies.  The  reputation  of  the  authors  for  accuracy,  and  their  care 
and  pains  in  bringing  into  each  successive  issue  the  discoveries  and  ob- 
servations that  have  occurred  in  the  interim,  have  given  their  work  the  full 
confidence  of  the  American  medical  public.  We  hazard  little  in  saying 
that  this  work  has  done  more  for  the  improvement  of  American  pharmacy 
than  any  other  single  agency,  not  but  that  other  and  important  agents  have 
successfully  operated  meanwhile,  but  this  book,  bearing  as  it  does  on  its 
pages  the  latest  and  most  accurate  information  in  a  form  and  arrangement 
suited  to  the  comprehension  of  even  the  unread  apothecary,  has  penetrated 
to  the  remotest  village  of  the  most  sparsely  settled  of  the  States,  and  is 
constantly  operating  beneficially  on  the  dispensers  of  medicine,  be  they 
pharmaceutical  or  medical. 
The  United  States  Dispensatory  lays  no  claim  to  scientific  arrangement. 
The  alphabetical  order  of  its  contents  extends  throughout,  and  in  the  des- 
cription of  substances  more  attention  is  given  to  simplicity  and  perspicuity, 
than  to  scientific  order  and  classification.  Yet,  for  comprehensiveness  of 
detail,  for  the  accuracy  of  its  facts,  and  for  the  careful  accrediting  of  observa- 
tions, it  is  not  surpassed  by  any  work  in  the  English  language.  Pereira's 
Materia  Medica  alone  exceeds  it  in  scientific  detail.  The  beautiful  but 
complex  arrangement  of  that  great  work,  based  on  the  natural' systems  of 
plants  and  animals,  will  always  give  it  pre-eminence  as  a  text  book  to  the 
advanced  student  of  materia  medica;  but  for  adaptation  to  the  wants 
and  understanding  of  the  great  body  of  practitioners  for  whose  instruction 
and  guidance  it  is  intended,  the  United  States  Dispensatory  stands,  in  our 
opinion,  unrivalled  by  any  single  work  in  any  country.  Our  time  has  not 
admitted  of  an  analysis,  nor,  perhaps,  is  it  needful.  Yet,  so  important  a 
place  has  this  book  assumed  in  reference  to  the  progress  and  development 
of  American  Pharmacy,  that  its  pages  should  be  watched  with  a  jealous 
eye  by  every  apothecary  and  physician.  The  United  States  Dispen- 
satory is  'practically  the  Pharmacopoeia.  The  excellent  commentary 
on  the  latter  which  the  Dispensatory  contains,  has  led  to  its  general  sub- 
stitution for  the  National  Code,  and  many  only  know  the  Pharmacopoeia 
through  its  pages— a  fact  greatly  to  be  regretted,  however  honorable  to  the 
authors — as  it  detracts  from  its  distinct  nationality,  by  presenting  its 
formulae  intermingled  with  those  of  the  British  Pharmacopoeias.  So  long 
as  this  continues,  every  error  or  mis-statement  should  be  as  freely  brought 
to  light  and  canvassed,  as  though  its  authors  were  a  "  pharmacopoeia  com- 
mittee," that  they  may  be  corrected  in  a  future  edition. 
