REMARKS ON THE REVISION OF THE PHARMACOPOEIA. 3 
plishment of the revisional labour which the convention of 
1850 may entrust to their joint consideration and action, 
and will bring to their aid that practical knowledge of phar- 
maceutical operations so essential to the proper construction 
of formulae, be they chemical or Galenical. 
But of what avail, it may be asked, is the correct prac- 
tical detail, the scientific accuracy, or the beautiful arrange- 
ment of a Pharmacopoeia, if its provisions are not generally 
recognised and acted upon by those for whose government 
it is promulgated ? 
The vast extent of our country ; the sparse and rapidly 
expanding population of the regions of the South and West ; 
(which precludes the exercise of pharmacy in its more ad- 
vanced state;) the local prejudices of different sections; and 
the absolute non-existence of any authoritative national or 
state legislation in its favour ; are some among the many 
causes operating against the universal recognition and 
practical adoption of the precepts of the Pharmacopoeia. 
But there are other and more potent influences inaction, 
which, by extending at the same time a knowledge of the 
Pharmacopoeia itself, and of those sciences and principles 
upon which it is based, are gradually silencing the preju- 
diced, gaining new advocates, and consolidating a broad 
basis of favourable public opinion upon which to place the 
pharmaceutical superstructure. 
Perhaps of the many causes which are conducing to this 
end, the United States Dispensatory and the American 
Journal of Pharmacy should be placed in the foremost rank. 
The former work, indeed, by its very general adoption, and 
from the fact that the second or pharmaceutical portion of 
the book may be considered as a commentary, or exposition 
of the Pharmacopoeia, has done more than any other agent. 
Its enlightened authors, by their talent and research, have 
rendered it so replete with information on all subjects con- 
nected with pharmacy ; and in their full digest of the pro- 
cesses of our national work, as compared with other stand- 
