404  Beginnings  of  Pharmacy  in  America.    { As™ptimbef,hi907?' 
August,  1776,  appointed  Dr.  William  Smith,  of  Philadelphia,  as 
"  Druggist  to  the  Continental  Army,"  for  which  he  was  to  receive 
thirty  dollars  per  month. 
This  latter  position  appears  to  have  been  somewhat  the  equivalent 
to  that  of  apothecary-general  during  the  War  of  1 8 12,  but  was  in 
no  sense  to  be  construed  as  being  the  equivalent  of  a  dispensing 
pharmacist. 
At  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  the  want  of  some 
authoritative  work,  or  reference  book,  on  the  materia  medica  in  com- 
mon use  in  the  United  States,  began  to  be  sorely  felt  by  the  medical 
practitioners  and  druggists  in  various  parts  of  the  country.  The 
Pharmacopoeia  for  the  use  of  the  Military  Hospital,  noted  above, 
was  little  more  than  a  limited  formulary  for  the  use  of  the  surgeons, 
apothecary  and  surgeons'  mates  connected  with  the  hospital  at  the 
time.  That  it  must  have  met  with  some  circulation  and  use  is  evi- 
denced from  the  fact  that  a  second  edition  of  it  was  required  within 
three  years. 
Recognizing  the  desirability  of  having  such  an  authoritative  work, 
the  Philadelphia  College  of  Physicians,  in  1788,  appointed  a  com- 
mittee consisting  of  eight  members  to  consider  the  feasibility  of 
forming  a  pharmacopoeia  for  the  use  of  the  College  and  its  mem- 
bers. This  committee,  after  considering  the  matter,  did  not  think 
it  advisable  to  publish  a  pharmacopoeia  for  local  use,  but  proposed 
that  a  circular  letter  be  addressed  "  to  the  most  respectable  medical 
characters  in  the  United  States,"  with  the  object  of  obtaining  their 
co-operation  and  support,  for  the  formation  of  a  National  Pharma- 
copoeia. 
The  circular  letter  was  printed  and  forwarded  in  accordance  with 
a  resolution  adopted  April  7,  1789.  In  answer  to  this  circular  letter 
some  correspondence  was  had  with  medical  men  in  various  sections 
of  the  United  States,  bearing  on  the  proposed  National  Pharmaco. 
poeia,  adapted  to  the  state  of  medicine  in  America.  From  the 
account  of  the  correspondence,  as  published  in  the  history  of  the 
College  of  Physicians,  it  would  appear  that  some  progress  was  made 
in  formulating  a  pharmacopoeia  ;  at  all  events  the  committee  was 
continued  from  time  to  time,  but  as  months  ran  into  years  interest 
in  the  project  appeared  to  wane  and  the  subject  was  ultimately 
dropped,  for  the  time  being  at  least. 
The  first  to  supply  the  growing  demand  for  adistinctively  American 
