210         The  Pharmacist  and  the  Pharmacopoeia.     {Am  May?i904arrr1' 
preparations  as  being  of  a  certain  percent,  strength  ;  then,  too,  the 
desirability  or  the  necessity  of  introducing  additional  assay  pro- 
cesses for  drugs  of  vegetable  origin,  and  to  define  certain  limitations 
in  terms  readily  understood,  appeared  to  make  it  desirable  that  the 
preparations  be  made  by  some  method  of  weight,  or  of  weight  and 
measure,  so  that  the  finished  preparation  would  have  some  definite, 
readily  understood  and  easily  remembered  relation  to  the  products 
of  which  it  was  composed.  Unfortunately,  the  objections  to  the 
metric  system  of  weights  and  measures  was  still  strong,  and,  as  a 
compromise,  parts  by  weight  were  agreed  on  as  the  alternative. 
This  decision  was  not  in  keeping  with  the  general  practice,  fol- 
lowed in  this  country  as  well  as  in  England,  of  measuring  liquids 
and  weighing  solids,  and  was  strongly  resented  by  a  large  number 
of  pharmacists. 
In  addition  to  this  the  sub-committee  having  the  publication  ol 
the  Pharmacopoeia  in  charge  made  the  very  serious  mistake  of  de- 
ciding on  a  relatively  high  price  for  the  book. 
These  two  points,  parts  by  weight  and  abnormally  high  price, 
were  no  doubt  the  more  important  factors  that  tended  to  make  the 
Dispensatories  once  more  pre-eminent  with  the  rank  and  file  of 
American  pharmacists. 
It  should  also  be  borne  in  mind,  however,  that  the  Dispensa- 
tories, in  addition  to  translating  parts  by  weight  into  definite  form- 
ulas, had  been  thoroughly  revised  and  had  been  brought  fully  up 
to  date,  as  far  as  was  possible  with  books  of  this  particular  type, 
and  were,  in  addition  to  all  of  this,  widely  advertised  by  the  re- 
spective publishers. 
It  is  quite  true  that  one  of  the  most  objectionable  features  of  the 
1880  Pharmacopoeia,  parts  by  weight,  was  modified  in  the  revision 
of  1890,  but  it  is  also  true  that  the  introduction  of  metric  weights 
and  measures  was  rather  in  advance  of  the  times  and  practices,  very 
few  pharmacists  having  acquired  a  practical  knowledge  of  the  metric 
system  of  weights  and  measures,  few  indeed  using  them  in  their 
routine  work. 
In  conclusion,  it  might  be  said  that  there  are  other  and  very 
weighty  reasons  why  the  Pharmacopceial  Revision  Committee 
should  not  betray  the  trust  that  has  been  placed  in  it  by  the  National 
Convention,  as  did  the  Revision  Committee  for  1870. 
One,  and  one  of  the  very  important,  reasons  is  the  fact  that  since 
