REMARKS ON THE REVISION OF THE PH ARM ACOPCEI A. 9 
they adhered to the old mode, by maceration, have ap- 
pended, in many of the instances where it was applicable, 
an additional formula, in which the substance or substances 
are exhausted by the displacement process. The wisdom 
of this step must be apparent to all who reflect on the sub- 
ject. The intrinsic merits of the new process were too pal- 
pable to be disregarded; on the other hand, a knowledge 
of its right application, or, indeed, of the method at all, 
was too limited to trust to its exclusive adoption, even in 
those cases where its superiority was beyond question. Its 
presentation in the Pharmacopoeia is an endorsement of its 
value, and doubtless, hundreds who otherwise never would 
have known or employed it, have thereby been induced to 
try its capabilities. 
In the natural progress of things, the unconditional 
adoption of this method in those cases where its utility is 
beyond a doubt, may be looked to as one of the features of 
the next edition of the National work. Ten years pupilage 
will have afforded ample opportunity for the apothecary to 
test its value, and it is very much to be desired that every 
pharmaceutist within our national borders will acquaint 
himself with it by practice, to enable him at least to judge 
of its merits. There ever will be those who rebel at all 
innovations, however beneficial ; who discard every amelio- 
ration, be it ever so improving, and who, clinging to antiquity 
as the test stone of their profession, look with distrust and 
doubt upon all recommendations which tend to overturn 
their accustomed ideas and practice. To these the process 
of displacement will remain as a sealed book; but to that 
class who are impressed with the yet imperfect state of Phar- 
macy in the United States at large, and to the rising gene- 
ration of pharmaceutists, it is open, and it is to be hoped 
that their interest in it will not abate until every formula 
in which it is applicable be demonstrated beyond question, 
and those cases where it is inappropriate be well ascertained 
and exposed. 
