9  2  Editorial.  {^IZ^""' 
questions,  prepared  by  Mr.  A.  B.  Taylor  on  behalf  of  the  committee  of  the  Phila- 
delphia College  of  Pharmacy,  are  being  considered  by  the  several  committees. 
ist.  Shall  the  present  Pharmacopoeia  be  so  altered  as  to  include  only  one  alpha- 
betical arrangement  in  the  whole  work  ?    This  has  been  adopted  affirmatively. 
2d.  Shall  the  description  of  physical  properties  of  drugs  and  chemicals  be  extended  ? 
If  so,  how  far  ?    Botanical?    Chemical?    This  was  also  adopted. 
3d.  Shall  the  formulas  for  the  manufacture  of  chemicals  be  omitted  (with  the  ex- 
ception of  those  preparations  where  different  results  are  produced  by  different  pro- 
cesses), and  descriptions  of  the  substances  be  substituted,  with  tests  of  identity, 
purity,  etc.  ?    This  was  also  adopted. 
The  committee  have  agreed  to  abandon  measures  of  capacity  and  substitute  parts 
by  weight,  and  to  propose  that  a  posological  table  of  active  drugs  be  placed  in  the 
back  of  the  book ;  that  the  latest  chemical  symbols  and  equivalents  be  given,  and 
that  the  temperature  be  stated  in  degrees  of  Centigrade  and  Fahrenheit  scales. 
The  committee  favor  the  introduction  of  powdered  extracts,  and  that  all  fluid 
extracts  represent  grain  for  grain. 
On  the  part  of  the  committee  of  the  Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy,  the  work 
has  been  divided  among  the  following  sub-committees  : 
Materia  Medica—  John  M.  Maisch,  C.  L.  Mitchell,  W.  B.  Webb. 
Chemical  Formulas — Chas.  Bullock,  Chas.  Spannagel,  A.  B.  Taylor. 
Chemical  Descriptions  and  Tests — A.  W.  Miller,  R.  Fairthorn,  Ed.  Gaillard. 
Fluid  Extracts,  Tinctures,  Wines,  Oleo  Resins,  etc. — I.  J.  Grahame,  S.  S.  Bunting, 
A.  Robbins. 
Plasters,  Extracts,  Liniments,  Mixtures,  etc. — J.  P.  Remington,  H.  G.  Jones, 
Wallace  Procter. 
Syrups,  Powders,  Pills,  Troches,  Suppositories,  etc. — J.  T.  Shinn,  W.  C.  Bakes, 
Thos.  S.  Wiegand. 
At  the  last  joint  meeting  the  following  resolution  was  adopted  :  That  no  weights 
or  measures  be  introduced  into  the  formulary  of  the  United  States  Pharmacopoeia 
except  when  required  for  convenience  of  dose,  and  that  then  the  weights  be  in 
grains  with  the  corresponding  metric  weights  in  brackets. 
Most  of  the  points  alluded  to  above  have  also  been  discussed  and  decided  by  the 
committee  appointed  for  the  same  purpose  by  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Asso- 
ciation, and  if  they  should  be  agreed  upon  by  other  medical  and  pharmaceutical 
societies  undertaking  the  preliminary  revision  of  the  Pharmacopoeia,  it  may  be  taken 
for  granted  that  the  results  of  their  labors,  when  presented  to  the  Decennial  Phar- 
macapoeia  Convention  in  1880,  will  agree  in  so  many  respects  that  the  final  revision 
may  be  accomplished  in  a  much  shorter  time  than  heretofore. 
Italian  Pharmacopoeia.— Italy  has,  as  yet,  no  national  pharmacopoeia,  a  com- 
pilation by  Prof.  Orosi  having  been  generally  employed.  But  the  want  of  a  recog- 
nized standard  is  felt,  and  we  learn  from  the  "  Pharm.  Zeitung,"  that  a  commission 
for  preparing  such  a  pharmacopoeia  has  been  appointed  by  the  government,  and 
organized  at  Rome,  October  2d,  1877,  under  the  presidency  of  Senator  Cannizaro, 
Professor  of  Chemistry  in  the  University  at  Rome 
Pharmaceutical  Legislation  in  Pennsylvania.  —We  learn  from  the  daily  papers 
that  on  January  22,  Hon.  Mr.  Ringgold,  of  Philadelphia,  introduced  a  bill  to  regu- 
