AmjiSey'imrm'}       United  States  Pharmacopoeia.  265 
The  number  and  kind  of  galenical  preparations  are  well  illustrated 
in  Table  3.  This  table  also  illustrates  the  progress  or  change  that 
has  been  brought  about  in  the  various  decennial  revisions. 
The  general  features  of  this  first  volume  were  retained  through 
six  editions.  One  interesting  feature  that  has  been  developed  is  the 
fact  that  all  of  the  various  editions  may  be  considered  in  pairs.  We 
find,  for  instance,  that  the  1820  and  1830  Pharmacopoeias  have 
much  in  common,  both  as  to  contents  as  well  as  style  and  general 
appearance.  Their  publication  was  authorized  directly  by  the 
"National  Medical  Convention,"  composed  entirely  of  physicians. 
In  1840  the  revision  was  delegated  to  a  revision  committee,  and 
they  in  turn  consulted  the  different  Colleges  of  Pharmacy  as  to 
much  of  the  detail ;  so  that  the  pharmaceutical  profession  practi- 
cally assisted  in  both  the  1840  as  well  as  in  the  1850  editions,  and 
these  two  books  have  also  other  points  of  similarity  that  we  will 
call  attention  to  later.  In  the  i860  revision  of  the  Pharmacopoeia 
the  pharmaceutical  profession  practically  dominated  the  revision 
committee,  and  the  same  may  be  said  of  the  Pharmacopoeia  for 
1870.  The  Convention  for  the  revision  of  the  Pharmacopoeia  in 
1880  authorized  extensive  changes  in  the  style  and  general  make  up 
of  the  book,  and  these  changes  were  retained  and  elaborated  in  the 
1890  edition. 
A  careful  study  of  the  accompanying  tables  will  indicate  many 
other  points  of  similarity  between  the  different  pairs  of  books.  For 
instance,  the  kind  and  number  of  articles  enumerated  in  the  first 
two  editions  are  almost  identical.  There  are,  however,  evidences  of 
progress.  For  instance,  under  the  heading  "Materia  Medica  "  we 
find  what  the  Revision  Committee  in  the  preface  call  "  accessory 
matter."  This  accessory  matter  was  intended  to  give  precision  to  the 
officinal  terms,  and  consisted,  in  the  case  of  chemical  substances,  of 
a  short  description,  and  in  the  case  of  botanic  drugs,  of  a  descrip- 
tion of  the  part  of  the  plant  that  was  intended  to  be  used,  and  the 
designation  of  its  botanical  origin  by  giving  the  full  botanical  name 
and  its  author,  or  a  reference  to  a  book  where  the  description  of  the 
particular  plant  could  be  found. 
In  the  second  part  the  descriptions  or  definitions  of  the  various 
classes  of  preparations  were  omitted  in  this  second  edition.  The 
reason  given  for  this  in  the  introduction  was  that  "  They  are  out  of 
place  in  a  Pharmacopoeia  which  is  intended  for  the  guidance  of 
