254 
The  Forthcoming  Pliarmacopceia. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharru. 
June,  19C4. 
Interest  in  the  forthcoming  revision  has  been  enhanced  by  the 
Food  and  Drug  Laws  of  the  various  States,  and  the  legislation  in 
Congress  which  claimed  the  attention  of  the  country  at  the  recent 
session.  One  of  the  serious  criticisms  of  the  Pharmacopoeias  of 
1880  and  1890  was  that  in  many  cases  the  requirements,  notably  in 
the  chemical  products,  were  entirely  too  stringent  ;  absolute  purity 
in  medicinal  chemicals  is  unnecessary,  and  the  standards  were  found 
to  be  in  some  instances  impossible  of  fulfilment,  unless  the  cost  of 
the  product  was  increased  to  such  an  extent  as  to  make  it  an  uncom- 
mercial article. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  presence  of  impurities  which  would  inter, 
fere  with  therapeutical  action  was  to  be  carefully  guarded  against. 
The  Convention  of  1900  adopted  the  following  general  principles: 
"  The  Committee  is  instructed  to  revise  as  carefully  as  possible 
the  limits  of  purity  and  strength  of  the  pharmacopceial  chemicals 
and  preparations  for  which  limiting  tests  are  given.  While  no  con- 
cession should  be  made  towards  a  diminution  of  medicinal  value, 
allowance  should  be  made  for  unavoidable,  innocuous  impurities  or 
variations  due  to  the  particular  source  or  mode  of  preparation,  or  to 
the  keeping  qualities  of  the  several  articles." 
To  carry  out  this  direction,  the  Committee  of  Revision  has  adopted 
what  has  come  to  be  known  as  the  "  Purity  Rubric."  This  will  be 
one  of  the  features  of  the  new  book,  and  will  be  placed  immediately 
under  the  official  title  and  English  name  of  the  article.  It  will 
declare  the  percentage  of  the  pure  substance  and  the  limit  of  innoc- 
uous impurity  permitted,  but  will  not  prevent  the  sale  of  the  abso- 
lutely pure  article,  or  that  of  a  higher  grade,  if  any  pharmacist 
chooses  to  use  such.  But  it  must  be  understood  that  the  so-called 
Sl  impurities "  are  innocuous,  and  this  is  controlled  by  chemical 
limitation  tests,  which  exclude  likely  impurities  of  a  harmful 
character. 
The  introduction  of  methods  of  assay  for  a  number  of  drugs,  the 
quality  of  which  can  be  controlled  in  this  way,  will  nwk  another 
advance  by  the  forthcoming  Pharmacopoeia,  the  number  of  assay 
processes  having  been  largely  increased. 
Another  new  feature  will  be  the  introduction  of  doses.  This  sub- 
ject occupied  the  attention  of  previous  Conventions  for  a  number  of 
years.  The  introduction  of  doses  was  opposed  mainly  by  the  phy- 
sicians of  previous  Conventions,  chiefly  for  the  reasons  that  it  was 
