Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  \ 
Oct.,  1881.  j 
Pharmacopaid  Revision. 
497 
PHAP.MAC0P(J5IA  REVISION. 
By  M.  Carteighe. 
Read  before  the  International  Pharmaceutical  Congress. 
Pharmacopceia  revision  is  a  subject  of  general  interest  to  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Congress,  and  of  special  interest  to  the  pharmacists  of 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland.  That  pharmacists  should  be  associated 
with  the  representatives  of  tlie  medical  profession  in  the  compilation 
of  a  pharmacopoeia  is  a  proposition  which  Avill  seem  self-evident] y 
reasonable  to  those  members  who  have  come  to  this  meeting  from 
abroad.  It  would  seem  a  natural  arrangement  that  while  the  repre- 
sentatives of  medicine  decide  what  drugs  and  remedies  are  to  be 
inserted  in  such  a  volume,  the  formulae  of  the  preparation  best  adapted 
for  their  administration  would  be  most  conveniently  determined  by 
jn^actical  pharmacists.  This  view  is  accepted  in  the  compilation  of 
the  various  European  pharmacopceias,  the  United  States  Pharmaco- 
pceia, and  that  of  the  Pharmacopceia  of  India. 
If  it  be  necessary  to  point  out  specially  the  practical  advantages  of 
the  presence  of  the  pharmacist  on  the  executive  body  charged  with  the 
revision  of  a  pharmacopoeia,  I  would  refer  to  the  various  ])rocesses  and 
preparations  of  the  United  States  Pharmacopoeia.  No  other  nation, 
so  far  as  I  know,  possesses  a  pharmacopoeia  showing  in  each  successive 
edition  more  marked  improvement  in  the  character,  stability,  and  ele- 
gance of  the  various  pharmaceutical  preparations.  The  presence  of 
the  pharmacist  on  the  Committee  of  Revision,  and  the  representation 
of  the  leading  colleges  of  pharmacy  conjointly  with  those  of  medicine 
on  the  National  Convention  which  appoints  this  committee,  have 
stimulated  the  progress  of  pharmacy  in  the  United  States  to  a  marvel- 
ous extent.  Its  pharmacy  is  more  advanced,  and  it  possesses  more 
workers  in  the  purely  pharmaceutical  line  of  research  than  most  other 
countries.  This  result  is  mainly  due  to  the  cordial  recognition  by  the 
colleges  of  medicine  of  the  value  of  public  pharmaceutical  institutions, 
and  the  services  of  their  individual  members  in  framing  their  national 
pharmacopoeia. 
The  conditions  under  which  pharmacy  was  conducted  in  Great  Bri- 
tain, before  the  foundation  of  Pharmaceutical  Society  in  1842,  were 
not  such  as  to  inspire  the  medical  profession  or  the  public  with  much 
confidence  in  the  ability  or  intelligence  of  those  who  practiced  it.  The 
apothecary  of  those  clays  had  given  up  what  little  pharmacy  he  prac- 
ticed, and  his  successor  had  not  accpiired  either  by  education  or  expe- 
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