396 
ON  SOME  POINTS  OF  CHEMICAL  THEORY,  ETC. 
that  art  has  long  been  known,  and  is  very  easy.  But,  said  the 
applicant,  I  fear,  sir,  you  do  not  exactly  understand  my  purpose. 
My  invention  consists  in  making  pmg  boards  out  of  oak  sawdust. 
Oh  !  is  that  it,  rejoined  the  commissioner;  but  that  is  very  easy 
also,  for  you  have  only  to  add  a  little  turpentine  ! 
Our  National  Pharmacopoeia  was  first  published  in  1820, 
under  the  authority  of  a  Medical  Convention,  which,  met  in 
Washington  in  that  year.  The  credit  of  originating  this  work 
belongs  to  the  late  Dr.  Lyman  Spalding,  of  the  State  of  New 
York.  Agreeably  to  the  recommendation  of  the  first  Convention, 
the  work  has  been  revised,  by  similar  authority,  at  intervals  of 
ten  years;  namely,  in  1830,  '40,  and  '50.  It  fell  to  my  lot  to 
assist  in  all  these  revisions ;  and  it  is  natural  that  I  should  feel 
a  deep  interest  in  the  approaching  revision,  which  is  to  take 
place  in  I860.*  Before  the  appearance  of  our  national  standard 
in  1820,  we  were  embarrassed  by  the  conflicting  authority  of  the 
three  British  Pharmacopoeias,  emanating  severally  from  the 
Colleges  of  Physicians  of  London,  Edinburgh  and  Dublin  ;  and 
even  since  its  appearance,  we  have  still  felt  the  disadvantage  of 
the  conflicting  formulas  and  nomenclature  of  these  authoritative 
works.  From  an  early  period,  British  practitioners  admitted 
the  evil  of  having  three  Pharmacopoeia  standards  ;  but  how  to 
remedy  it  was  the  great  difficulty.  If  the  British  Colleges  of 
Physicians  could  have  agreed  upon  a  common  standard,  the  evil 
would  have  been  removed;  but  their  views  were  too  conflicting, 
and  all  their  attempts  to  construct  a  British  Pharmacopoeia 
proved  fruitless.  It  is  now  more  than  twenty  years  since  I  re- 
ceived a  letter  from  that  distinguished  chemist,  the  late  Dr. 
Edward  Turner,  of  London,  in  which  he  alluded  to  this  subject, 
and  gave  it  as  his  opinion,  that  no  hopes  can  be  entertained  that 
the  British  Colleges  will  ever  lay  aside  their  local  preferences, 
and  agree  upon  one  national  standard  ;  and  that  nothing  but  the 
strong  arm  of  Parliament  could  effect  that  desirable  object.  In 
my  Introductory  of  1854,  I  made  some  remarks  on  the  intimate 
connection  between  American  and  British  Pharmacology ;  and, 
*Dr.  Bache  is  chairman  of  the  committee,  now  engaged  in  the  fourth 
revision  of  the  U.  S.  Pharmacopoeia,  under  the  authority  of  the  National 
Convention  which  met  for  that  purpose,  in  May  last,  in  Washington 
City. — Ed.  Am.  Jour.  Ph. 
