THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY 
JUNE,  1902. 

THE  EVOLUTION  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  PHARMA- 
COPCEIA. 
By  M.  I.  W113ERT, 
Apothecary  at  the  German  Hospital,  Philadelphia. 
With  the  eighth  decennial  revision  of  the  United  States  Pharma- 
copoeia in  active  preparation,  it  was  thought  that  a  review  of  some 
of  the  previous  editions  might  prove  to  be  of  interest. 
The  history  of  the  inception,  origin,  and  continuation  of  the 
Pharmacopoeia  is  sufficiently  well  told  in  the  introductory  pages  of 
the  last  edition,  so  that  we  may  confine  these  remarks  exclusively 
to  a  review  of  the  construction,  arrangement,  and  contents  of  the 
various  books. 
To  do  this  more  readily  and  also  more  satisfactorily,  we  have 
computed  and  arranged  a  considerable  amount  of  the  information 
into  tables,  that,  in  a  general  way,  show  the  contents  and  scope  of 
the  book  at  the  different  decennial  periods. 
The  first  edition  of  the  Pharmacopoeia  is  admittedly  based  on  the 
"  Pharmacopoeia  of  the  Massachusetts  Medical  Society,"  Boston, 
1808.  This  work,  while  eight  years  older  than  "  The  Pharmacopoeia 
of  the  New  York  Hospital,"  appears  to  have  been  much  more  popu- 
lar, and  to  have  enjoyed  a  larger  circulation ;  consequently,  had  a 
greater  following.  Another  reason  why  the  "  Massachusetts  Phar- 
macopoeia" was  favored  is  found  in  the  fact  that  the  New  England 
delegates  to  the  "  National  Medical  Convention  "  were  sufficiently 
numerous  and  influential  to  practically  dominate  the  convc  tion. 
This  is  corroborated  by  the  fact  that  the  first  edition  of  "  The  Phar- 
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