AmMa0y,r'i87h7arrn  1     The  American  Medical  Association.  2 13 
And  the  decision  of  the  issue  may  be  left  to  the  intelligent  pharmacist. 
Perhaps  very  few  of  the  criticisms  since  offered  to  the  last  revision 
were  not  freely  and  fully  canvassed  in  the  committee. 
In  the  address  before  the  New  York  College  of  Pharmacy  we  find 
the  somewhat  milder  statement,  "  The  true  reason  why  our  last  revi- 
sion was  so  unsuccessful,  and  probably  the  only  reason  why  we  are 
now  left  to  desire  a  change,  if  we  do  desire  one,  is  because  it  is  so  con- 
structed as  to  require  a  Dispensatory,  and  is  now  without  one."  (p.  19.) 
This  appears  to  be  a  totally  new  objection.  Certainly  a  "  Dispensa- 
tory "  is  no  part  of  a  "  Pharmacopoeia,"  and  as  certainly  it  was  no 
part  of  the  duty  of  the  Convention,  or  of  its  executive  Committee,  to 
prepare  a  "Dispensatory."  The  cause  of  the  unfortunate  delay  in 
issuing  the  expected  revision  of  the  latter  work,  it  is  well  known,  is 
the  infirm  condition  of  its  venerable  surviving  editor  and  proprietor. 
Our  critic  proceeds  :  "  The  reason  why  we  have  not  a  better  Phar- 
macopoeia now,  is  that  the  labor  involved  was  so  great  that  no  man 
or  set  of  men  should  have  been  asked  to  perform  it  unpaid.  The  Com- 
mittee did  not  only  all  that  could  be  reasonably  expected  of  them,  but 
far  more  ,than  they  could  afford  to  do.  .  .  .  Let  us  not  permit 
ourselves  to  complain  that  the  work  was  not  better  done,  but  let  us  be 
thankful  that  it  was  done  so  well."  (p.  19.) 
An  objection  more  directly  addressed  to  the  decennial  Convention 
is  the  somewhat  curious  one  that  this  body  is  not  properly  a  " national" 
one.  "  Whatever  may  have  been  the  reasons,  this  organization  never 
was  a  national  one,  in  any  true  sense  of  the  word,  in  its  relation  to  the 
aggregate  medical  profession  of  the  United  States,  and  its  Conventions 
were  not  only  infrequent,  but  small,  and  simply  gave  support  and  autho- 
rity to  a  very  few  men."  (p.  6.)  Now,  what  are  the  simple  facts  as  to 
the  constituency  of  this  organization?  The  fundamental  rule  of  its 
existence  is — 
"  The  President  of  this  Convention  shall,  on  the  first  day  of  May, 
1879,  issue  a  notice  requesting  the  several  incorporated  State  Medical 
Societies,  the  incorporated  Medical  Colleges,  the  incorporated  Colleges  of 
Physicians  and  Surgeons,  and  the  incorporated  Colleges  of  Pharmacy, 
throughout  the  United  States,  to  elect  a  number  of  delegates  not  exceed- 
three,  to  attend  a  General  Convention  to  be  held  in  Washington  on 
the  first  Wednesday  in  May,  1880." 
Here  are  four  most  important  classes  of  Associations  "throughout 
