422 
Progress  in  Pharmacy. 
(Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
I  September,  1907. 
thus  expressed  differ  materially,  the  authors  are  nevertheless  well 
agreed  in  asserting  that  the  present  Pharmacopoeia,  with  all  of  its 
faults  and  shortcomings,  is  a  credit  to  American  pharmacy,  and  that 
strenuous  efforts  should  be  made  to  make  the  coming  edition  at 
least  equally,  if  not  more,  representative  of  the  best  that  American 
pharmacy  is  capable  of. 
The  letters,  editorials  and  comments  that  have  been  published  on 
this  subject  are  well  worth  careful  consideration  by  all  who  are  at  all 
interested  in  the  Pharmacopoeia.  There  can  be  no  misinterpretation 
of  the  signs  of  the  times.  Matters  pharmaceutical  are  developing 
rapidly,  and  changes  that  a  decade  ago  would  have  been  thought 
impossible  are  all  but  upon  us,  and  they  will,  no  doubt,  bring  in 
their  train  radical  changes  in  the  publication,  if  not  the  actual 
revision,  of  the  National  Pharmacopoeia. 
International  Standards. — Of  the  National  Pharmacopoeias  that 
have  been  published  since  the  convening  of  the  International  Con- 
ference for  the  Unification  of  the  Formulae  of  Potent  Medicaments, 
in  Brussels,  in  1902,  the  Spanish  Pharmacopoeia  leads  by  conforming 
to  96  per  cent,  cf  the  requirements.  The  Belgian  Pharmacopoeia 
conforms  to  87  per  cent,  the  Dutch  Pharmacopoeia  81  per  cent., 
the  Austrian  Pharmacopoeia  77  per  cent.,  and  the  Pharmacopoeia  of 
the  United  States  to  27  per  cent,  of  these  requirements. 
To  arrive  at  these  results,  Belgium  was  compelled  to  modify  80 
per  cent,  of  the  formulas,  Spain  75  per  cent.,  Holland  39  per  cent, 
and  Austria  but  6  per  cent,  of  the  corresponding  formulae  contained 
in  the  previous  editions.  [Schweiz.  wochschr.  f.  Chem.  u.  Phar.} 
1907,  page  419.) 
Modern  Pharmacopoeias  and  the  International  Agreement. — Prof. 
Henry  G.  Greenish,  in  discussing  the  same  question  [Phar.  your., 
June,  1907,  page  832),  makes  the  following  comment: 
"  The  conspicuous  failure  on  the  part  of  the  United  States  to 
bring  its  formulas  into  harmony  with  those  of  the  agreement,  as 
shown  by  the  above  table,  and  also  the  notes  on  the  various  prepa- 
rations, is  the  more  remarkable  when  considered  in  conjunction 
with  the  statement  in  the  preface  (of  the  U.S.P.)  that  '  the  recom- 
mendations of  this  (the  International)  Conference  have  been  adopted 
by  the  Committee  of  Revision  except  in  one  or  two  instances.'  " 
The  New  Danish  Pharmacopoeia. — The  new  edition  of  the  Danish 
Pharmacopoeia  is  the  seventh,  the  original  edition  having  been  pub- 
lished in  1772. 
