ADeimfcrP?Q^7.'  '    Unification  of  Phannacopocial  Standards.  569 
THE  POSSIBILITY  OF  A  UNIFICATION  OF  PHARMA- 
COPCEIAL  STANDARDS.1 
By  George  M.  Berixger,  A.M.,  Ph.M. 
Your  honored  president,  Dr.  T.  H.  Carmichael,  my  esteemed 
friend  ever  since  the  days  of  our  youth  when  we  were  classmates 
in  the  Central  High  School  of  Philadelphia,  invited  me  to  address 
you  on  this  occasion.  His  invitation  was  construed  as  a  friendly 
command.  He  generously  assigned  to  me  no  stated  subject  and  I 
trust  that  the  topic  that  I  have  selected  may  prove  acceptable  and, 
possibly,  that  the  suggestion  contained  may  merit  further  con- 
sideration. 
The  necessity  for  uniformity,  for  standardization,  in  order  to 
attain  the  highest  efficiency  and  to  obtain  the  most  satisfactory  and 
concordant  results  is  now  more  fully  appreciated  than  ever  before 
in  the  history  of  the  world.  Today,  the  demand  for  standardiza- 
tion is  evidenced  in  every  line  of  human  activity  ;  whether  we  con- 
sider the  mechanical  industries,  manufactures,  agriculture,  arts,  edu- 
cation, the  professors  or  any  of  the  sciences,  in  whatever  way  the 
attention  is  directed,  one  discerns  the  same  strong  current.  As 
human  judgment  is  far  from  perfect,  it  must  be  allowed  that  some- 
of  these  efforts  at  times  rather  deflect  than  aid  true  progress  and 
that,  temporarily,  normal  views  have  been  obscured  and  real  ad- 
vancements retarded. 
"When  one  studies  any  of  the  sciences,  whose  function  it  is  to  set 
in  orderly  array  the  truth  in  the  selected  line  of  research  and  study, 
he  becomes  aware  how  this  so-called  "  modern  wave  "  is  after  all 
but  a  continuation  of  that  desire  for  higher  mental,  spiritual  or  ma- 
terial attainment  which  was  created  with  the  implanting  in  the 
human  mind  of  that  attitude  which  we  call  ambition.  Moreover,  he 
is  impressed  with  the  truth  that  idealistic  ambitions  are  never  fully 
realized ;  that  there  are  some  things  concealed  from  man,  some  things 
still  higher  and  beyond  human  reach.  Likewise  he  learns  that  the 
ambitious  striver  for  the  higher  goal  is  subjected  to  the  suspicion, 
envy  and  dislike  of  fellow  men.    The  poet  Bvron  aptlv  wrote : 
a 
1  An  address  delivered  before  the  Homeopathic  Medical  Society  of  the 
County  of  Philadelphia  at  the  meeting  in  Hahnemann  College,  October  11. 
1917. 
