358       National  Formulary  as  a  Legal  Standard.  {A^guSrtJ?c£.rm' 
was  a  correct  and  wise  movement,  and  it  is  to  be  regretted  that  the 
scope  of  that  work  was  not  restricted  to  this  particular  field  and 
kept  within  well-defined  limits. 
Not  the  least  defect  in  this  book  is  the  desire  of  the  authors  to 
extend  the  work  beyond  reasonable  bounds.  The  same  spirit  and 
ideas  that  led  to  the  inclusion  in  this  edition  of  formulas  for  battery 
fluids,  antiseptics,  corn  cure,  camphor  ice,  bay  rum  and  talcum  pow- 
der, if  allowed  to  go  on  unchecked  in  subsequent  editions,  may 
include  formulas  for  hair  dyes,  hair  tonics,  beverages,  skin  foods, 
and  the  hundreds  of  toilet  articles  and  domestic  aids  that  are  being 
sold  by  the  druggists. 
The  desire  to  offer  Formulary  substitutes  for  all  proprietary  medi- 
cines prescribed  by  physicians,  has  been  carried  to  the  extreme,  and 
in  some  instances  led  to  still  greater  confusion  and  diverted  the 
prescriber  still  further  from  the  true  ethical  position  of  prescribing 
such  combinations  of  simple  and  official  remedies  as  are  best  suited 
to  each  patient. 
If,  on  the  contrary,  the  original  intent  to  limit  this  work  as  por- 
trayed in  the  preface  to  the  first  edition  in  the  following  language: 
"  Without  referring  to  the  more  ephemeral  preparations,  or  to  such 
as  are  of  a  proprietary  character,  or  are  used  by  the  public  for  self- 
medication,  there  is  a  large  number  of  others,  which  are  more  or 
less  frequently  prescribed  by  physicians  or  demanded  by  the  public, 
but  which  are  not  recognized  by  the  Pharmacopoeia,  either  because 
they  were  not  deemed  by. the  revisers  to  be  of  sufficient  importance 
to  be  included  in  the  official  work,  or  because  they  originated  sub- 
sequently to  the  appearance  of  that  work,  or  for  other  reasons," 
had  been  carefully  and  systematically  carried  out,  a  far  greater  degree 
of  uniformity  would  ere  this  have  been  established.  Our  legislators, 
now  placing  the  stamp  of  legal  standard  upon  the  volume,  should 
have  found  a  work  of  accepted  authority,  and  the  drug  trade  should 
not  have  been  found  in  a  state  of  unpreparedness  and  thrown  into 
confusion  by  these  acts  of  legislation.  The  volume  itself  bears 
ample  internal  evidence  that  the  committee  compiling  it  did  not 
anticipate  such  early  and  broad  legislation. 
-  It  becomes,  however,  our  duty  to  frankly  criticise  the  errors  and 
defects  existing  in  the  book,  especially  if  these  are  of  such  a  character 
as  to  render  it  unsafe  or  dangerous  as  a  legal  standard.  The  scope 
of  this  paper  will  not  permit  the  discussion  of  all  of  the  errors  ex- 
