328  Weights  and  Measures  in  Liquid  Preparations,  {^j^ii^™- 
ON  THE  USE  OF  WEIGHTS  AND  MEASURES  IX  LIQUID 
PREPARATIONS. 
By  Peof.  Jos.  P.  Remington. 
Read  before  the  Pennsylvania  Pharmaceutical  Association,  June  16. 
What  advantages  would  be  gained  by  extending  the  system  now  officinal 
for  fluid  extracts,  to  all  the  liquid  preparations  of  the  Pharmacopoeia  ?  That 
is,  to  substitute  the  gramme  and  cubic-centimetre  for  parts  by  weight. 
To  the  majority  of  pharmacists  who  have  received  their  pharma- 
ceutical education  in  America  the  principle  of  expressing  quantities  in 
officinal  formulae  in  parts  by  weight  was  comparatively  unknown  until 
1882,  when  the  United  States  Pharmacopoeia  (1880)  was  first  issued; 
it  is  true  that  the  Pharmacopceial  Convention  of  1870  directed  its  Com- 
mittee of  Revision  to  express  their  formulae  in  weights  and  parts  by 
weight,  but  the  1870  committee,  by  a  unanimous  vote,  took  the  bold 
step  of  disregarding  the  directions  of  the  convention,  and  the  U.  S. 
Pharmacopoeia  of  1870  appeared  with  the  quantities  expressed,  mainly 
in  troy  and  nuidounces.  For  this  action,  the  committee  suffered  con- 
demnation at  the  hands  of  those  who  favored  the  method  used  in  Con- 
tinental Europe,  and  wdien  in  1880  the  Pharmacopceial  Convention 
reaffirmed  the  judgment  of  the  Convention  of  1870,  and  ordered  its 
committee  to  use  parts  by  weight  in  expressing  all  formulae,  it  was 
felt  that  the  command  could  not  be  disregarded,  although  the  individ- 
ual opinion  of  the  members  was  not  united  on  the  subject. 
The  Committee  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association  on  the 
United  States  Pharmacopoeia,  who  presented  a  valuable  report  in 
1878,  carefully  outlined  the  leading  principles  which  should  guide  the 
final  Committee  of  Revision,  and  "  parts  by  weight "  constituted  the 
"  chief  innovation."  Yet  this  report  was  unanimously  adopted  by  the 
American  Pharmaceutical  Association,  and  eventually  became  the 
skeleton  of  the  Pharmacopoeia  of  1880,  for  all  of  its  leading  principles 
wrere  adopted  by  the  Pharmacopceial  Convention  of  1880.  It  will 
thus  be  seen  that  "parts  by  weight  "  came  legitimately  and  naturally 
into  our  last  Pharmacopoeia,  and  whatever  doubts  were  held  by  some 
of  the  members  of  the  committee  as  to  the  merits  of  the  system,  it 
cannot  be  said  that  full  time  and  consideration  were  not  given  to  the 
subject,  and  time  alone  could  be  trusted  to  prove  whether  upon  fair 
trial  it  w<ould  survive  or  fall. 
It  would  be  beyond  the  scope  of  this  paper  to  enter  into  all  of  the 
arguments  pro  and  con  upon  this  very  important  subject ;  for  much 
