Amjune,r'x^7!rm'}  Proposed  Changes  in  the  Pharmacopeia.  28  s 
maceutical  Association  not  only  has  a  standing  Committee1  which  pre- 
sents an  annual  Report  of  a  very  elaborate  character  on  the  "Progress 
of  Pharmacy," — not  only  has  another  standing  Committee,  annually 
presenting  for  volunteer  essays,  a  large  series  of  scientific  "queries" — 
a  considerable  proportion  of  which  have  direct  reference  to  details  ot 
the  Pharmacopoeia,  but  it  has  especially  a  permanent  44  Committee  on 
the  Pharmacopoeia"  which,  appointed  in  1863,  "on  motion  of  Dr. 
Squibb,"2  and  then  consisting  of  three,  was  in  1874  increased  to  fifteen. 
As  an  offset  to  this,  what  work  of  a  similar  kind  has  the  American 
Medical  Association  to  show  in  its  "proceedings"  by  which  to  illus- 
trate its  intelligent  interest  in  the  improvement  of  the  Pharmacopoeia,, 
its  zealous  preparation  for  its  revision,  and  its  pre-eminent  fitness  to 
take  the  exclusive  charge  of  that  important  work  ? 
If  the  constituent  bodies  represented  in  the  Convention  would  under- 
take not  only  to  offer  vague  and  general  suggestions,  but  to  carefully 
work  out  and  present  the  finished  details  of  proposed  changes,  they 
would  furnish  valuable  contributions  to  the  improvement  and  advance- 
ment of  the  professional  Standard ;  would  give  to  widely  separated  dis- 
tricts of  our  country  their  just  influence  and  impress  on  the  range  of 
the  work,  and  would  materially  facilitate  the  laborious  and  somewhat 
thankless  task  entrusted  to  the  committee  of  final  revision. 
It  is  earnestly  to  be  hoped  that  at  the  approaching  Convention  of 
1880,  the  medical  societies  especially  will  be  aroused  from  their  pre- 
vious apathy,  by  Dr.  Squibb's  energetic  agitation,  and  redeem  them- 
selves from  his  reproach,  "that  in  this  organization  the  medical  pro- 
fession of  eight  to  twelve  States  only  was  represented  "  (p.  6.) 
II.  With  regard  to  the  plan  of  the  Pharmacopoeia,  the  leading  objec- 
tion urged  by  Dr.  Squibb  appears  to  be  that  the  existing  work  is  a 
"mere  skeleton" — a  simple  dictionary  of  the  materia  medica..  41  As 
a  summary  of  what  has  been  said,  it  maybe  suggested  that  any  amend- 
ment of  the  present  plan  which  does  not  embrace  a  dispensatory  or  its 
equivalent  in  the  Pharmacopoeia  itself,  will  be  no  improvement  upon 
the  past."  (p.  13.)  44 1  would  propose  to  make  a  Pharmacopoeia  which 
should  need  no  dispensatory,  one  which,  for  the  scientific  information 
1  Since  1873,  this  Committee  has  had  the  form  of  a  Special  Reporter,  and  his 
valuable  Report  on  the  "Progress  of  Pharmacy"  occupied  in  1874,  279  pages;  in 
1875,  461  pages,  and  in  1876,  368  pages  of  the  published  annual  of"  Proceedings.' 
2  Proceedings  Am.  Pharm.  Assoc.  :  1863.    vol.  xi.,  p.  42, 
