356  Report  on  U.  S.  Pharmacopoeia.  {Am'™y%h4arm- 
were  exhibited  at  the  meeting  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical 
Association  at  Chicago,  and  an  edition  of  8,200  copies  was  placed 
upon  the  market.  This  supply  was  soon  exhausted  and  was  fol- 
lowed by  a  second  edition  of  5,000  copies,  and  again  in  1894,  a 
third  edition  of  5,000  had  to  be  printed,  and  a  large  portion  of  these 
is  already  sold. 
Altogether  the  reception  of  the  work  has  been  a  favorable  one 
both  at  home  and  abroad.  Criticisms  have  been  published  in  a 
number  of  journals,  some  of  them  censuring  the  committee  of  revi- 
sion for  introducing  or  omitting  features,  which  were  not  in  the 
power  of  the  committee  to  control,  as  their  action  was  limited  by 
the  instructions  on  the  convention  which  elected  the  committee. 
Among  the  omissions  especially  censured  was  the  non-introduction 
of  a  number  of  modern  synthetic  chemicals,  such  as  antipyrin,  phe- 
nacetin,  sulfonal,  etc.,  which  are  received  into  European  pharma- 
copoeias. Many  of  the  members  of  the  committee  of  revision  were 
in  favor  of  their  admission,  but  the  stringent  rule,  number  6, 
adopted  by  the  convention,  forbade  this,  and  the  only  remedy  for 
those  who  wish  such  preparations  introduced  will  be  that  the  dele- 
gates to  the  next  convention  give  greater  liberty  of  action  to  the 
committee  they  may  then  elect. 
Another  objection  dwelt  on  by  some  critics  was  the  failure  of 
stating  the  doses  of  the  remedial  agents,  or  at  least  the  maximum 
doses  of  very  active  and  poisonous  preparations.  This  question 
was  also  under  discussion  in  the  convention,  and  though  no  formal 
restriction  was  placed  upon  the  committee  of  revision,  the  sentiment 
expressed  in  the  convention  was  so  unfavorable  to  the  introduction 
of  doses  that  it  was  not  deemed  prudent  to  contravene  it. 
As  in  all  large  publications,  a  number  of  misprints  have  happened 
and  have  been  discovered  too  late  for  correction  in  the  plates  of  the 
first  edition.  In  spite  of  all  care  and  the  most  painstaking  proof- 
reading, such  mishaps  will  always  occur  and  are  more  liable  to  be 
overlooked  where  the  authors  of  the  book  live  distant  from  each 
other  and  from  the  place  of  publication.  Unless  the  printing  is  to 
be  unduly  protracted,  only  a  limited  time  can  be  given  to  reading 
the  proofs,  and  this  is  much  shortened  when  they  are  to  be  sent  and 
returned  by  mail.  In  spite  of  many  vigilant  eyes,  not  only  of  the 
editor  and  the  whole  committee,  but  also  of  the  outside  assistants,  a 
few  errors  were  permitted  to  pass.    Fortunately  they  were  mostly 
