6 REMARKS ON THE REVISION OF THE PHARMACOPEIA. 
timents of their respective neighbourhoods on the merits of 
the Pharmacopoeia. 
If this plan was carried out with spirit, it would un- 
doubtedly be attended with good results; but unfortunately 
for its success, the gentlemen who resort to our marts are 
generally too much occupied with their private business; 
take too little interest in the subject ; or from their repre- 
senting in many instances the wholesale dealers rather than 
the apothecaries, might not be qualified for the necessary 
judgment in the case — which requires a knowledge, not 
merely of what drugs are most employed in this or the other 
section, but what processes do not yield products of a satis- 
factory character, or what formulae of great admitted value 
have not found a place in the work. 
It is the opinion of the writer that a much more general 
expression would be obtained, and in a form more con- 
ducive to the end in view, by the following course: — 
It is presumed that in every city or town which contains 
ten or more apothecaries, there exists a pharmaceutical 
public opinion, which shows itself in an analogy of sentiment 
in regard to certain preparations, or the Pharmacopoeia in 
general, and which embraces to a certain extent the views 
of the practitioners of medicine in the same locality. As 
these cities or towns are resorted to by country physicians 
for their supplies of medicines, they necessarily come in 
contact with the apothecaries, who thus extend their in- 
fluence far beyond their immediate neighbourhoods, and 
such cities or towns become Pharmaceutical centres of 
more or less importance. If, therefore, one or more of the 
most intelligent pharmaceutists of each of these centres 
would open a correspondence with some general centre of 
record, giving the views of his colleagues on any imper- 
fections of the existing Pharmacopoeia, or on any suggestions 
tending to its improvement, a mass of information would 
be obtained, embracing the united expression of the pro- 
fession. 
