THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY 
MAY,  i goo. 
SUGGESTIONS  FOR  REVISING  THE  SEVENTH  DECEN- 
NIAL UNITED  STATES  PHARMACOPCEIA. 
By  Lyman  F.  KBBivKR,  Ph.C,  M.S. 
The  date  for  the  convention  to  consider  the  principles  to  be  ob- 
served in  revising  the  present  Pharmacopoeia  is  rapidly  approaching, 
and  hints  from  the  various  workers  throughout  this  country  will, 
undoubtedly,  be  duly  appreciated  by  the  Committee  of  Revision. 
It  has  been  the  writer's  good  fortune  to  study  our  legal  pharmaceu- 
tical and  medical  standard  and  guide  from  various  points  of  view, 
and  some  of  the  conclusions  arrived  at  he  now  desires  to  present. 
Permit  the  writer  to  say,  by  way  of  introduction,  that,  if  some  of 
the  language  should  appear  to  be  dressed  in  the  garb  of  criticism,  it 
is  not  the  sole  function  of  criticism  to  find  fault  ;  but  its  chiefest 
and  sublimest  part  is  to  observe  those  essentials  which  should  ap- 
peal to  the  reasonable  thinker.  The  latter  is  the  spirit  of  these  few 
comments  and  suggestions. 
The  1890  Pharmacopoeia  is  conspicuously  a  monumental  record  of 
American  progressiveness.  Its  standards  are  of  exceptional  value. 
The  more  we  study  its  contents,  the  more  are  we  impressed  with 
the  fund  of  knowledge  possessed  by  the  various  workers  who 
assisted  in  its  compilation.  Some  of  them  placed  their  standards 
so  high  for  some  chemicals  that  the  ideal  rather  than  the  real 
seemed  to  have  been  in  mind  ;  consequently,  the  requirements  are 
frequently  those  of  CP.  articles,  in  the  strict  sense  of  the  word, 
and  some  of  the  best  manufacturers  in  the  country  have  literally 
refused  to  make  some  of  the  U.S.P.  products,  so  as  to  comply  with 
that  standard  at  current  prices. 
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