Editorial.  559 
EDITORIAL  DEPARTMENT. 
The  December  number  of  this  journal  will  be  issued  about  a  week  later  than 
•usual,  it  being  considered  desirable  that  the  present  volume  should  contain  an 
account  of  the  Twenty-sixth  Annul  Meeting  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical 
Association,  which  will  convene  at  Atlanta,  Ga  ,  on  Tuesday,  November  26th. 
Official  or  Officinal. — The  editorial  remarks  on  page  449,  appended  to  Dr. 
Murray's  paper  on  this  subject,  have  called  forth  the  following  answer: 
The  "remarks"  not  only  give  room  for,  but  demand  an  answer.  It  is  given  with 
the  desire  to  bring  back  to  the  normal  line  that  which  has  been  refracted,  not  to 
appear  pugnacious.  I  hope  the  affirmative  of  the  original  subject  has  lost  no  force 
•by  its  long  convalescence.  In  order  to  properly  connect  what  follows,  it  will  be 
necessary  to  re-read  the  original  article  and  answer,  published  in  the  September 
number  of  this  journal. 
Excusing  the  general  severity  of  the  "remarks,""  I  come  at  once  to  an  important 
correction.  In  the  line,  "since  the  publication  of  Dr.  Miller's  paper,"  the  emphatic 
*l  since"  loses  its  emphasis  when  we  point  to  the  fact  that  official  is  exclusively  used 
in  Prof.  Attfield's  "  Chemistry,"  issued  in  March,  1873;  Mr.  Squire's  "  Companion," 
issued  in  October,  1874;  Dr.  John  Muter's  "Chemistry,"  issued  in  March,  1874; 
and,  since  Mr.  Wills  follows  Prof.  Attfield  in  his  teaching,  it  is  but  reasonable  to 
suppose  that  he  had  adopted  the  word  not  later  than  1874,  although  I  have  nothing 
positive  on  this  point  earlier  than  the  summer  of  1877}  while  Dr.  Miller's  article 
was  not  published  until  April,  1875  ' 
To  show  that  words  may  be  long  known,  yet  not  generally  adopted,  I  mentioa 
that  so  high  an  authority  as  Worcester's  "Unabridged  Dictionary,"  1878,  gives 
officinal  as  relating  solely  to  the  shop  and  not  the  usual  medical  definition.  The 
same  cannot  be  said  of  Webster,  but  neither  notices  the  term  unofficinaL 
The  "correctness"  of  the  word  is  conceded  by  no  less  an  American  authority 
than  Prof.  Henry  Hartshorne,  who  says,  in  his  "  Conspectus,"  page  460,  issued 
May,  1874,  "  Official  is  the  more  correct  term,  though  not  so  commonly  employed." 
Medicines  are  "unofficial"  in  the  United  States  when  not  recognized  by  the  com- 
pilers of  the  U.  S.  Pharmacopoeia ;  "unofficial"  in  the  British  Empire  when  not 
recognized  by  the  British  Pharmacopoeia,  and  so  on. 
In  the  second  paragraph  of  "  remarks  "  the  citation  of  unfortunate  terms  in 
other  connections  is  not  thought  particularly  relevant.  They  too,  however,  maybe 
corrected  by  confining  the  terms  to  their  proper  application. 
Finally,  preference  should  at  all  times  and  under  all  circumstances  be  given  to 
correctness  and  definition,  not  to  ambiguity,  no  matter  how  aged  or  how  well 
understood. 
Note. —  This  should  have  appeared  last  month,  but  for  want  of  time  it  was  not 
prepared  until  the  journal  was  in  press.  Its  position  this  month  is  owing  to  tardi- 
ness of  the  author.  F.  Marion  Murray,  M.D. 
Tenth  month  19th,  1878. 
We  stand  corrected  as  to  the  date  of  the  authorities  quoted  in  Dr.  Murray's  first 
paper.  The  additional  authority  quoted  in  the  above  reply  sheds  no  new  light  on 
the  subject,  and  it  will  be  observed  that  Dr.  Murray  carefully  avoids  discussing  the 
meaning  of  official  as  it  has  been  sanctioned  by  usage,  and  does  not  notice  the  ambi- 
guity of  the  same  word  if  its  application  was  extended  as  proposed  The  mere 
citing  of  authorities  is  of  no  avail,  and  proves  nothing  except  personal  preferences. 
Those  who  still  adhere  to  the  word  officinal,  as  it  has  always  been  used,  we  believe 
