AmMay!'i9(S.ari3Q'}     The  Pharmacist  and  the  Pharmacopeia.  205 
the  nineteenth  century,  the  Dispensatories,  based  on  the  several  edi- 
tions of  the  London  or  the  Edinburgh  Pharmacopoeias,  were  practi- 
cally the  only  authoritative  books  used  or  known. 
The  Pharmacopoeias  themselves  were  only  known  indirectly,  the 
chief  reason  being  the  lack  of  knowledge  of  Latin  on  the  part  of  the 
early  medical  practitioners. 
The  first  distinctly  American  publication  was  the  American  Dis- 
pensatory, by  Dr.  Redman  Coxe,  published  in  Philadelphia,  in  1806. 
This  book,  although  little  more  that  a  reprint  ot  Duncan's  Edin- 
burgh Dispensatory,  had  a  large  circulation,  and  was  generally 
accepted  as  an  authoritative  work  by  a  large  number  of  American 
practitioners.  The  American  Dispensatory  was  republished  in  nine 
successive  editions,  the  latest  appearing  in  183 1. 
The  American  New  Dispensatory,  by  Dr.  James  Thacher,  was 
published  in  Boston  in  1810.  While  the  general  arrangement  of 
the  contained  material  was  along  the  same  lines  as  that  of  the  Dis- 
pensatories based  on  the  London  and  Edinburgh  Pharmacopoeias^ 
and  much  of  the  matter  was  taken  from  one  or  the  other  of  these 
books,  this  new  Dispensatory  contained  a  number  of  original  fea- 
tures. Among  others,  it  will  be  found  that  Dr.  Thacher  was  given 
permission  to  use  the  material  contained  in  the  Pharmacopoeia  of 
the  Massachusetts  Medical  Society,  published  in  1808,  so  that  this 
Dispensatory  may  properly  be  said  to  have  been  the  first  based  on 
an  American  Pharmacopoeia,  and  also  the  first  to  establish  the  pre- 
cedent of  quoting,  in  addition  to  the  American,  several  of  the  foreign 
Pharmacopoeias. 
The  American  New  Dispensatory  was  largely  used  throughout 
the  Eastern  States  ;  it  appeared  in  four  consecutive  editions,  the  latest 
in  1 82 1.  This  last  edition,  as  well  as  the  editions  of  the  American 
Dispensatory,  published  between  1820  and  1830,  was  based  on,  or 
quoted,  the  United  States  Pharmacopoeia  of  1820. 
As  is  well  known,  the  first  edition  of  the  United  States  Pharma- 
copoeia was  published  in  Boston  in  1820;  and  while  it  is  true  that  a 
second  edition  of  the  same  book  was  printed  in  1828,  the  book  itself 
did  not  receive  the  support  that  it  rightly  deserved  either  from  the 
medical  practitioners  or  from  the  pharmacists. 
In  speaking  of  this  first  edition  of  the  United  States  Pharmacopoeia, 
in  his  memoirs,  Dr.  George  B.  Wood  says  :  "  The  first  Pharma- 
copoeia was  issued  in  1820;  it  was  creditable  as  a  first  attempt,  but 
