278  Proposed  Changes  in  the  Pharmacopoeia.  { AmjuJ°em"I8P77arm 
labor,  which  but  few  have  the  knowledge  and  skill  to  render,  without 
paying  for  it."  (p.  11.)  "  The  last  committee  of  final  revision  .  .  had 
the  necessary  ability,  but  they  did  not  give  the  necessary  labor  to  the 
work,  or  at  least  the  work  as  done  leads  directly  to  this  conclusion." 
(p.  34.) 1  Therefore,  difficult  as  it  would  be,  u  with  all  the  caution 
that  could  be  used "  to  organize  the  council  of  five,  the  hope  is 
expressed  that  it  "  might  not  be  impracticable  if  the  labor  could  be 
paid  for  in  reputation  and  in  money ,  as  it  should  and  must  be  to  be  success- 
ful." (p.  14.)  And  one  reason  given  for  limiting  the  council  to  five  is 
that  "  it  is  doubtful  whether  the  income  could  ever  be  made  sufficient 
to  adequately  pay  for  more  than  one  competent  editor  to  do  the  con- 
tinuous detail  work,  and  five  members  or  councillors  for  the  intermit- 
tent duties."  (p.  15.)  "  Each  member  should  be  paid,  from  the  first, 
his  actual  expenses  of  attending  such  meetings,  and  as  the-  income 
should  increase,  be  paid  for  his  services,  over  and  above  his  expenses, 
at  say  so  much  for  each  meeting  attended.  The  income  from  the 
work  of  such  a  council  would  in  two  or  three  years  adjust  itself." 
(P.  25.) 
From  all  these  conclusions  we  must  entirely  dissent.  We  believe 
that  the  experiment  of  complicating  existing  jealousies  with  the  per- 
sonal struggles  stimulated  by  greed  of  gain,  would  be  fraught  with 
evil  only,  and  would  not  be  likely  to  improve  the  national  standard  of 
the  materia  medica.  To  permit  the  copyright  of  such  a  publication  to 
be  in  the  absolute  ownership  of  the  compilers — as  a  commercial 
speculation — for  their  own  emolument  and  recompense,  with  the 
tempting  field  of  profitable  advertising  spaces  so  accessible,  would,  in 
our  judgment,  be  productive  of  results  vastly  more  deplorable  than  any 
"  mercantile  bias  "  of  some  enterprising  pharmacist  of  the  future,  eager 
to  impose  his  preparations  on  the  Pharmacopoeia.  Hitherto  the  Com- 
mittee of  Revision  can  proudly  say  that  they  have  had  no  pecuniary 
interest  whatever  in  the  publication.  The  copyright  has  been  held  as 
a  sacred  trust  for  the  Convention,  and  its  possible  profits  have  been 
entirely  devoted  to  cheapening  the  book  for  the  public. 
In  this  admission  of  the  lack  of  speculative  shrewdness  thereby  be- 
1  It  is  only  necessary  to  say  in  answer  to  this,  that  the  labors  of  this  committee 
occupied  very  many  sessions,  often  lasting  late  at  night,  with  a  large  amount  of 
intermediate  preparatory  work  by  the  members  separately,  and  extended  over  a 
period  of  twenty- four  months. 
