330  Purposes  of  the  National  Formulary.  {Amju^if94.arm- 
WHAT  ARE  THE  PURPOSES  OF  THE  NATIONAL  FOR- 
MULARY, AND  HOW  CAN  IT  BEST  BE  MADE 
TO  SERVE  THESE  PURPOSES? 
By  John  F.  Patton. 
Read  before  the  Pennsylvania  Pharmaceutical  Association,  June  15,  1894. 
The  National  Formulary  is  the  natural  development  and  legiti- 
mate outcome  of  the  present  evolution  of  the  application  of  reme- 
dies to  disease.  In  other  words,  it  standardizes  and  gives  uniform- 
ity under  authority  to  an  important  list  of  unofficial  medicinal 
preparations  generally  prescribed  throughout  the  country.  It  is 
said,  all  inventions  take  their  rise  from  wants  unsupplied ;  hence 
the  proverb,  "  necessity  is  the  mother  of  invention." 
The  want  of  a  uniform  standard  for  unofficial  preparations  was 
everywhere  felt,  and  especially  was  this  the  case  in  our  larger  cities, 
as  witness  the  fact  that  its  birthplace  was  in  the  centre  of  densest 
population.  Reforms  are  only  inaugurated  when  evils  become 
unbearable.  A  multiplicity  of  new  remedies,  with  no  definite 
standard  for  their  manufacture,  was  the  evil  which  the  National 
Formulary  was  designed  to  correct. 
The  recently  revised  and  greatly  enlarged  edition  of  the  United 
States  Pharmacopoeia,  with  its  definite  standard  of  remedies,  forms 
but  a  limited  portion  of  the  resources  of  the  medical  profession  in 
the  treatment  of  the  sick,  and  this  limit,  unfortunately,  has  been 
greatly  enhanced  by  a  disposition,  on  the  part  of  physicians,  to 
experiment  with  every  new  preparation  brought  to  their  notice. 
The  loaded  condition  of  the  shelves  of  the  average  pharmacy, 
with  compounds  outlandish  in  name,  secret  in  composition,  and 
extravagant  in  price,  many  of  which  were  but  different  brands  of 
what  was  intended  to  be  one  and  the  same  thing,  became  such  a 
burden  as  to  demand  relief. 
The  initiative  to  that  end  was  taken  by  a  committee  representing 
the  New  York  College  of  Pharmacy,  the  German  Apothecaries' 
Union  of  New  York  City,  and  the  King's  County  Pharmaceutical 
Association,  of  Brooklyn. 
These  committees  collecting  local  and  private  formulas,  published 
them  in  book  form.  Their  ready  acceptance  and  general  use  proved 
the  correctness  of  the  belief  as  to  the  lines  along  which  the  desired 
relief  was  to  come. 
