Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
June,  1914. 
Progress  in  Pharmacy. 
273 
less  than  29  printed  pages.  This  fact  would  appear  to  indicate  that 
many  of  the  official  formulae  have  been  found  to  be  satisfactory  and 
that  the  members  of  the.  Executive  Committee  of  Revision  have 
exercised  due  care  in  the  making  of  changes. 
Commenting  on  the  recently  published  abstracts  of  laws  regu- 
lating the  production,  sale,  and  Use  of  poisons  and  habit-forming 
drugs  in  this  country,  the  Pharmaceutical  Journal,  London  (1914, 
vol.  92,  p.  278),  says: 
The  poison  legislation  of  the  United  States  consists  of  a  multi- 
plicity of  statutes  of  a  not  very  effectual  character,  and  a  fundamental 
alteration  of  the  law  seems  to  be  desired.  During  the  year  1912- 
19 1 3,  over  forty  State,  territorial,  or  similar  Legislatures  were  in 
session,  and  nearly  if  not  quite  all  of  these  bodies  enacted  some  form 
of  .legislation  designed  directly  or  indirectly  to  affect  the  sale  and 
use  of  poisons.  But,  notwithstanding  this  abundance  of  legislation, 
the  poison  laws  of  the  United  States  are  admittedly  still  far  from 
perfect. 
"  The  Harrison  anti-narcotic  bill,  so-called,  is  still  pending  in 
the  Senate,  with  some  probability  that  the  original  bill  in  a  slightly 
amended  form  will  become  law  during  the  present  session  of  Con- 
gress. It  is  perhaps  unfortunate  that  the  subject  of  Federal  anti- 
narcotic  legislation  has  been  unnecessarily  complicated  by  the  intro- 
duction of  a  number  of  amendments  that  can  in  no  way  assist  in 
developing  the  primary  object  of  the  bill  and  will  at  best  serve  to 
complicate  its  enforcement  should  it  become  law." 
Boy  land  Bill. — The  recently  enacted  New  York  State  law,  known 
as  the  Boylan  Bill,  prohibits  the  sale  of  habit-forming  drugs  except 
on  the  prescription  of  a  licensed  physician,  but  the  provisions  do  not 
apply  to  the  sale  of  domestic  and  proprietary  medicines  actually  sold 
in  good  faith  as  medicines  and  not  for  the  purpose  of  evading  the 
law,  "  providing  such  remedies  or  preparations  do  not  contain  more 
than  two  grains  of  opium,  or  one-fourth  grain  of  morphine,  or  one- 
fourth  grain  of  heroin,  or  one  grain  of  codeine,  or  ten  grains  of 
chloral  or  their  salts  in  one  fluidounce,  or  if  a  solid  preparation  in 
one  avoirdupois  ounce,  nor  to  plasters,  liniments,  and  ointments  for 
external  use  only."  If  the  prescription  calls  for  more  than  four 
grains  of  morphine,  thirty  grains  of  opium,  two  grains  of  heroin, 
six  grains  of  codeine,  or  four  drachms  of  chloral,  the  authority  for 
the  prescription  must  be  verified. — Pharm.  Era,  19 14,  vol.  47,  pp. 
199,  200. 
