THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY 
JUNE,  1904. 
THE  FORTHCOMING  PHARMACOPOEIA. 
By  Joseph  P.  Remington. 
While  it  is  too  soon  to  review  in  advance  the  Eighth  Decennial 
Revision  of  the  United  States  Pharmacopoeia,  in  detail,  the  interest 
in  this  edition  has  been  so  widespread,  and  the  inquiries  about  the 
changes  have  increased  to  such  an  extent,  that  it  seems  only  right 
to  give  to  the  pharmaceutical  profession  information  about  the  most 
salient  features.  The  work  is  now  being  printed  and,  if  no  unfore- 
seen accident  occurs,  it  will  be  ready  in  October.  For  the  first  time 
in  the  history  of  Pharmacopoeial  revision  in  the  United  States  the 
work  is  being  revised  under  the  control  of  a  chartered  organization. 
As  is  well  known,  previous  revisions  were  conducted  by  a  body 
known  as  the  Committee  of  Revision,  which  had  entire  charge  of 
the  work,  including  the  sale  of  the  book  and  the  control  of  the 
finances.  Owing  to  the  immense  increase  in  what  are  known  as 
new  remedies  within  the  last  ten  years,  and  the  greatly  enlarged 
scope  of  the  work  of  revision,  it  was  deemed  best  in  1900  to  relieve 
the  distinguished  Chairman,  Dr.  Charles  Rice,  of  part  of  his  burden 
by  separating  the  financial  and  commercial  duties  from  the  work  of 
revision,  and  to  place  under  his  leadership  the  important  duty  of 
preparing  the  manuscript  and  the  other  work  in  charge  of  a  Board 
of  Trustees.  To  accomplish  this,  a  charter  for  the  United  States 
Pharmacopoeial  Convention  was  granted  on  the  7th  day  of  July, 
1900,  in  Washington,  by  the  District  of  Columbia.  By  this  charter, 
the  objects  above  outlined  were  secured,  and  thus  the  whole  work 
of  revision  has  been  given  a  legal  and  official  status,  which  remedied 
a  fundamental  need  demonstrated  by  previous  revisions. 
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