346  The  American  Medical  Association.  {Am,jS^iSiarm- 
even  exist  without  the  wide  publicity  that  is  secured  to  them  by  the 
free  use  of  the  mails. 
"  The  Eighth  Decennial  Revision  of  the  Pharmacopoeia  of  the 
U.  S.  A."  was  the  subject  of  a  paper  presented  by  the  chairman  of 
the  Revision  Committee,  Prof.  Joseph  P.  Remington,  who  said  that 
the  new  Pharmacopoeia  would  probably  appear  in  October.  He 
spoke  at  some  length  of  some  of  the  advantages  that  are  expected 
to  accrue  from  the  adoption  of  the  recommendations  of  the  Inter- 
national Conference  for  the  unification  of  the  formulae  of  potent 
medicaments,  and  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  after  the  adoption 
of  the  new  Pharmacopoeia  a  number  of  the  tinctures  of  potent  drugs 
will  be  materially  reduced  in  strength. 
Tincture  of  aconite,  for  instance,  instead  of  being  35  per  cent, 
strength,  will,  with  all  of  the  other  potent  tinctures,  have  the  uni- 
form strength  of  10  per  cent. 
The  use  of  synonyms  will  be  discouraged  by  placing  them  in  the 
index  but  not  in  the  body  of  the  book.  Average  doses  will  be 
given.  A  number  of  the  more  widely  used  synthetic  chemicals  will 
be  admitted  under  descriptive  or  definite  chemical  names. 
"  The  Relation  of  the  Physician  to  Proprietary  Remedies  "  was 
the  title  of  a  paper  presented  by  Dr.  William  J.  Robinson,  of  New 
York.  In  this  paper  the  writer  divides  physicians  into  three  groups. 
The  members  of  the  first,  or  group  A,  prescribe  anything  that  comes 
to  their  knowledge,  while  the  members  of  group  B  are  ultra-con- 
servative, and  never  use  proprietary  medicines  under  any  conditions. 
The  members  of  class  C,  on  the  other  hand,  will  carefully  inquire 
into  the  character  of  new  drugs  and  preparations  and,  if  satisfactory, 
give  them  a  fair  trial. 
Robinson  differentiates  between  nostrums  of  secret  composition 
and  new  remedies  for  which  a  patent  has  been  granted,  or  is  obtain- 
able, and  believes  that  the  use  of  the  latter  is  perfectly  justifiable. 
The  discussion  on  these  papers,  collectively,  was  quite  general, 
and  certainly  spirited.  The  general  trend  of  the  discussion,  how- 
ever, appeared  to  be  that  the  practical  instructions  in  materia  med- 
ica  and  pharmacy  as  given  in  by  far  the  greater  number  of  medical 
colleges  was  inefficient,  and  that  this  lack  of  training,  combined  with 
the  prominence  given  the  claims  of  proprietary  medicines  in  the 
advertising  pages  of  medical  journals,  was  largely  responsible  for  the 
widespread  use  of  this  class  of  medicinal  preparations. 
