Amju°nue^i904arm*}        The  Forthcoming  Pharmacopoeia.  257 
President  of  the  U.  S.  Pharmacopceial  Convention,  that  I  should  explain  the 
situation  to  the  pharmaceutical  and  medical  public. 
The  organization  which  has  been  provided  for  the  production  of  the  new 
U.  S.  Pharmacopoeia  consists  of  the  Pharmacopoeial  Convention,  which  meets 
every  ten  years,  in  which  all  authority  exists,  and  from  which  any  right  to  act 
is  derived.  By  the  Convention  are  appointed  the  Board  of  Trustees  and  Com- 
mittee of  Revision. 
Chapter  IV,  Article  2  (Abstract  of  Proceedings  of  the  U.  S.  Pharmacopceial 
Convention),  states  that  the  "  Board  of  Trustees  shall  have  the  management 
and  control  of  the  affairs  and  funds  of  this  Convention,  except  as  herein  other- 
wise directed,"  and  then  continues  in  detail  to  direct  that  the  trustees  shall 
transact  financial  and  other  allied  business  ;  whilst  Chapter  V,  Article  2  (ab- 
stract of  Proceedings  of  the  U.  S.  Pharmacopceial  Convention),  puts  the  whole 
preparation  of  the  manuscript  of  the  Pharmacopoeia  directly  under  the  exclu- 
sive control  of  the  Committee  of  Revision. 
It  is  plain  that  the  Board  of  Trustees  can  therefore  act  only  after  the  Com- 
mittee of  Revision  shall  have  made  its  report,  and  that  the  only  function  that 
it  has  in  regard  to  the  manuscript  itself  is  to  see  that  it  has  been  prepared  in 
accordance  with  the  directions  of  the  Convention. 
Whether  it  is  wise  to  introduce  into  the  formulae  of  the  U.  S.  Pharmacopoeia 
alternative  quantities,  is  a  question  well  worthy  of  discussion  and  of  solution. 
It  is  plain,  however,  that  the  settlement  of  matters  of  such  primary  import- 
ance in  the  Pharmacopoeia  naturally  belongs  to  the  Convention  and  not  to  a 
Committee,  and  the  Convention  very  properly  took  action  in  this  matter  in 
1900.  The  action  taken  may  or  may  not  have  been  the  best  possible,  but  the 
right  and  power  of  the  Convention  to  act  is  unquestionable. 
Section  7,  page  30  (Abstract  of  Proceedings  of  the  U.  S.  Pharmacopoeial 
Convention),  says  in  regard  to  the  formulae  :  "The  Committee  (of  Revision) 
is  instructed  to  retain  the  metric  system  of  weights  and  measures  as  adopted 
in  the  Seventh  Decennial  Revision."  The  word  used  in  the  text  is  not 
"  advised  "  or  "  recommended,"  but  "  instructed,"  and  for  one  or  both  of  the 
subordinate  bodies  of  the  Convention  to  absolutely  disregard  the  instructions 
of  the  Convention,  would  be  a  direct  breach  of  faith,  and  would  establish  a 
most  disastrous  precedent,  which  would  destroy  the  confidence  that  any  future 
convention  might  have  in  the  carrying  out  of  its  instructions  by  its  appointed 
Committee  of  Revision.  Such  a  precedent  might  well  undermine  the  whole 
fabric  of  Pharmacopoeial  Revision. 
In  order  to  guard  against  such  a  calamity,  Chapter  5,  Article  2,  of  the  Ab- 
stract of  Proceedings  of  the  U.  S,  Pharmacopceial  Convention,  expressly 
states  that  the  "  Committee  of  Revision  shall  execute  such  orders  or  reso- 
lutions as  shall  have  been  assigned  to  it  by  the  Convention."  Certainly  the 
duty  of  obedience  could  not  be  more  fully  formulated. 
The  U.  S.  Pharmacopoeia  has,  by  the  Acts  of  Congress  and  of  various  State 
Legislatures,  been  given  in  the  United  States  the  force  of  law,  and  it  behooves 
a  law-making  body  to  adhere  in  the  closest  manner  possible  to  the  rules  of  par- 
liamentary procedure,  mu.  h  more  to  those  of  ordinary  good  faith  ;  so  that  the 
question  as  to  whether  alternative  quantities  shall  or  shall  not  be  used  in  the 
formulae  of  the  U.  S.  Pharmacopoeia  is  a  matter  of  little  importance  compared 
with  the  question  whether  the  Board  of  Trustees  and  the  Committee  of  Revi- 
