274  Proposed  Changes  in  the  Pharmacopoeia.  { Am- /uZr;J„m 
practically  there  has  been  difficulty  in  securing  the  attendance  and 
co-operation  of  a  large  number  of  active  workers  in  the  committee,, 
this  should  be  remedied  by  a  careful  selection  by  the  Convention  of 
those  both  qualified  and  willing  to  serve  faithfully  on  this  responsible 
work. 
Such  a  commission,  "  charged  with  the  entire  work,  should  be 
authorized  to  employ  one  or  two  editors  or  secretaries  ;  perhaps  two 
during  the  general  revisions  and  one  permanently.  These  should  be 
experts,  competent  to  do  all  the  detail  work  under  the  direction  of  the 
council,  and  should  submit  the  prepared  work  at  the  meetings  of  the 
council.  -These  officers  of  the  council  should  be  liberally  paid  for 
their  services,  but  should  have  no  vote  in  the  council,  and  perhaps  one 
of  them  should  be  permanently  employed,  entirely  and  solely  in  the 
interest  of  the  Pharmacopoeia,  under  the  absolute  direction  and  control 
of  the  council.  There  should  be  no  salaries  paid  to  the  council ;  but 
actual  traveling  expenses  should  be  paid.  And  all  expert  labor  neces- 
sary to  the  work  should  be  liberally  paid,  and  the  best  experts  onl^ 
should  be  employed."  (p.  9.) 
To  these  propositions  no  reasonable  objections  could  be  made.  The 
sacrifice  of  time  required  by  the  members  of  the  commission,  in  their 
frequent  and  prolonged  labors,  is  a  sufficiently  onerous  tax,  without 
entailing  upon  those  living  at  a  distance  from  the  place  of  session  the 
pecuniary  outlay  which  few  could  well  afford.  Most  heartily,  therefore,., 
do  we  approve  the  plan  that  "  actual  traveling  expenses  should  be 
paid"  to  all  members  of  the  revising  committee,  in  order  to  secure  as 
wide  a  geographical  representation  as  possible. 
In  the  further  elaboration  of  his  scheme,  however,  Dr.  Squibb 
arrived  at  the  judgment  that  "  the  labor  involved  in  bringing  the  Phar- 
macopoeia up  to  the  level  of  pharmaceutical  progress  at  the  times  for 
its  revision  has  always  been  great,  and  increasing  rapidly  with  each 
revision,  has  now  become  very  great,  far  too  great  to  be  required  or 
expected  from  any  committee  of  revision  acting  voluntarily  and  gra- 
tuitously, while  no  adequate  provision  has  ever  been  made  for  paying, 
for  the  labor  involved."  (p.  11.)  If  to  this  be  opposed  the  testimony 
uthat  the  plan  of  revising  the  Pharmacopoeia  by  this  Convention  has 
been  eminently  successful  and  sufficient  up  to  1850  or  i860  will  not 
be  doubted  by  any  reasonable  person,  for  the  testimony  of  the  great- 
mass  of   the  profession  will  be  heartily,  promptly  and  thankfully 
