Am.  Jour.  Pharm) 
May,  1877.  J 
The  American  Medical  Association. 
one  organized  bodies  represented  in  the  National  Pharmacopoeial  Con- 
vention of  1870,  but  six  or  seven  are  entitled  to  send  delegates  to  the 
American  Medical  Association,  and  no  college  is  permitted  representation 
in  the  Association."  (p.  8.)  That  is  to  say,  under  a  Napoleonic  general- 
ship, three  State  Medical  Societies  and  three  local  Medical  Societies 
(supposing  them  to  be  obedient  to  the  behests  of  the  American  Medi- 
cal Association,)  are  "  assumed"  to  overwhelm  and  rout  twenty-two 
other  incorporated  bodies  represented  in  the  National  Convention,  and 
not  represented  in  the  Medical  Association  I1 
As  certainly  as  any  human  events  can  be  foreseen,  the  National 
Convention  for  revising  the  United  States  Pharmacopoeia  will  hold 
its  usual  decennial  meeting  "  in  Washington,  on  the  first  Wednesday 
in  May,  1880."  And  as  certainly  it  will  proceed  as  usual  to  the 
deliberate  discharge  of  its  appropriate  duties  ;  adopting  its  well-con- 
sidered policy,  and  giving  to.  the  medicinal  professions  of  the  country 
in  due  time  its  expected  edition  of  the  United  States  Pharmacopoeia. 
Re-iterating  the  cherished  fallacy  that  the  American  Medical  Asso- 
ciation, "  as  the  superior  body,  and  even  embracing  the  very  elements 
of  the  National  Convention  [!]  may  relieve  it  and  assume  its  functions 
and  work,"  the  writer,  under  review,  proceeds  to  the  logical  result, 
that  this  Association  "  may  even  carry  these  out  in  its  own  way,  yet 
the  officers  of  the  Convention  may  decline  to  be  relieved,  and  may 
call  a  Convention  in  1880,  as  provided  for  by  the  Convention  of  1870. 
There  might  then  be  two  Pharmacopoeias."  (p.  35.) 
Should  the  ill-advised  counsels  of  Dr.  Squibb  find  any  sufficient  fol- 
lowing to  re-enact  the  farce  of  1830,  when  New  York  ventured  the 
experiment  of  a  rival  Pharmacopoeia,  the  event  will  be  deplored  by 
the  judicious,  but  it  will  not  effect  the  credit  or  the  success  of  the 
only  duly  authorized  occupant  of  the  field. 
As  if  in  anticipation  of  such  a  programme,  the  author  ventures  to 
announce  the  following  opinion  :  "  If  the  American  Medical  Asso- 
ciation took  the  title  from  the  Convention,  and  produced  its  book  first, 
then  the  pharmacists  would  be  obliged  to  call  their  book  by  some  other 
1  This  does  not  include,  on  either  side,  the  representation  of  the  following  three 
bodies  :  the  Medical  Departments  of  the  "  U.  S.  Army,"  and  of  the  "  U.  S. 
Navy,"  and  the  "  Medico  Chirurgical  Society  of  Louisville,"  which  three  bodies, 
although  represented  in  the  last  National  Convention,  were  not  represented  in  the 
American  Medical  Association  at  that  time. 
'5 
