Am.^jour.^arm.j        United  States  Pharmacopeia.  209 
tests  of  the  Paarmacopceia  they  will  have  to  pay  a  guinea  an  ounce 
for  some  of  them." 
These  remarks  are  directly  in  accord  with  the  resolution  quoted 
above,  and  no  one  can  justly  say  that  they  savor  of  commer- 
cial gain.  In  this  age  of  reasonable  goods  there  are  but  few,  if  any, 
who  are  willing  or  can  afford  to  pay  for  the  heavy  expense  neces- 
sary to  remove  traces  of  chlorides  or  sulphates  from  medicinal 
agents  which  would  not  be  enhanced  therapeutically,  or  for  com- 
mercial purposes,  one  iota,  as  the  result.  The  manufacturer  is  wil- 
ling, if  he  can  get  the  right  prices,  to  supply  anything  asked  for. 
In  prescribing  standards  for  the  U.S. P.  the  writer  is  of  the  opinion 
that  the  following  three  propositions  should  be  rigidly  kept  in 
mind  : 
(1)  The  standard  of  all  U.S.P.  preparations,  drugs  and  chemicals 
should  be  so  adjusted  that  they  are  not  only  satisfactory  medi- 
cinally, but  that  they  can  also  be  manufactured  from  other  U.S.P. 
goods,  which  enter  into  their  preparation  either  in  part,  or  as  a 
whole. 
(2)  The  requirements  of  all  U.S.P.  goods  should  be  such  that 
they  can  be  employed  in  the  manufacture  of  all  other  U.S.P.  goods, 
of  which  they  form  an  integral  part,  either  in  part  or  as  a  whole. 
(3)  The  best  medicinal  goods  available  in  commerce  should  form 
the  basis  of  all  standards. 
The  present  Pharmacopoeia  is  frequently  at  variance  with  the 
above  propositions.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  when  standards  are  so 
exacting  that  not  a  single  manufacturer's  goods  will  comply  with 
them,  these  standards  must  of  necessity  become  dead  letters  and  of 
non-effect.  As  the  result,  each  analyst  must  take  a  responsibility 
upon  himself  that  belongs  elsewhere,  namely,  the  establishment  of 
a  fair  and  just  standard. 
This  introduces  us  to  a  very  important  subject,  namely,  the  de- 
termination of  the  constants  of  the  various  substances,  the  degree  of 
purity,  limit  of  impurities,  etc.  In  this  matter  the  Pharmacopoeia 
should  give  such  information  that  the  results  obtained  by  the  vari- 
ous workers  in  various  parts  of  the  country  would  be  fairly  con- 
cordant and  easily  arrived  at. 
On  looking  over  the  constants  of  the  Pharmacopoeia  the  careful 
observer  will  soon  ask  :  "Are  the  various  boiling-point  and  melt, 
ing-point  temperatures  used  in  this  book  corrected  or  uncorrected?" 
