AQAu|ust,Ji9oa7^m' }    National  Formulary  as  a  Legal  Standard.  357 
THE  NATIONAL  FORMULARY  AS  A  LEGAL  STANDARD, 
AND  SOME  OF  ITS  DEFECTS.1 
By  George  M.  Beringer,  Camden,  N.  J. 
The  druggists  of  the  United  States  are  confronted  by  a  paradox. 
"The  National  Formulary  of  Unofficial  Preparations"  has  been 
declared  by  the  Federal  Food  and  Drugs  Act  of  June  30,  1906,  to 
be  "  official,"  and  some  of  the  State  legislatures  have  already  fol- 
lowed this  example  in  State  acts.  Thus  a  number  of  preparations 
that,  because  of  lack  of  merit  or  insufficient  trial,  were  denied  admis- 
sion in  our  Pharmacopoeia,  and  a  number  of  others  that  for  various 
reasons  were  dismissed  therefrom  as  no  longer  worthy  of  official 
standing,  are  all  declared  by  law  to  be  "  official"  and  of  the  same 
value  as  legal  standards  as  the  pharmacopceial  "  drugs."  (The 
word  "  drug  "  is  used  here  in  accordance  with  the  new  legal  defini- 
tion of  the  word.)  The  term  "  official  "  as  used  and  limited  by 
pharmacopceial  authority  is  by  legal  enactment  perverted  to  cover 
the  "  unofficial."  The  opinions  of  experts,  physicians  and  pharma- 
cists alike,  and  of  men  who  have  devoted  their  lifework  to  the  study 
of  pharmaceutical  problems,  are  thus  ruthlessly  cast  aside  by  legis- 
lators who  have  never  seen  either  a  Pharmacopoeia  or  National 
Formulary,  and  "  the  tests  laid  down  in  the  National  Formulary  " 
(which  work  is  noteworthy  for  the  absence  of  tests)  are  declared  of 
equal  legal  authority  and  standing  as  the  voluminous  and  exact  tests 
of  the  Pharmacopoeia. 
The  writer  does  not  want  to  be  misunderstood  in  thus  calling 
attention  to  the  anomalous  condition  existing.  The  enactment  of 
pure  food  and  drug  laws  is  "  righteous  legislation,"  meriting  the 
support  and  encouragement  of  every  patriotic  and  honest  citizen. 
On  the  other  hand,  such  laws  should  be  as  just  to  the  manufacturer 
as  to  the  consumer ;  equitable  alike  to  producer,  dealer  and  con- 
sumer. Further,  they  should  be  free  from  misstatements  and  errors 
so  as  to  afford  a  permanent  relief  and  escape  adverse  legal  decisions. 
The  movement  inaugurated  by  the  American  Pharmaceutical 
Association,  looking  toward  the  establishing  of  uniformity  of  medi- 
cines dispensed  on  physicians'  prescriptions  for  which  there  was  no 
authoritative  standard,  which  culminated  in  the  National  Formulary, 
1  Read  at  the  Annual  Meeting  of  the  New  Jersey  Pharmaceutical  Association, 
Asbury  Park,  June  13,  1907. 
