Am.  Jour.  Pharm.l 
June,  1900.  j 
U.S. P.  National  Convention. 
279 
"  The  dry  bones  of  history,  such  as  may  be  found  in  the  opening  pages  of 
the  U.  S.  Pharmacopoeia,  interest  most  of  us  but  little,  but  when  they  are 
clothed  with  flesh  and  blood,  it  quickens  heartbeats  to  see  how  near  akin  the 
men  of  the  past  were  to  the  men  of  the  present;  and  how,  notwithstanding  all 
change,  the  continuing  brotherhood  of  the  race  reveals  itself  in  the  written 
lines.    *    *  * 
"Very  far  from  the  truth  is  Tennyson's  antithesis  between  the  permanence 
of  the  brook  and  the  momentary  life  of  humanity  ;  the  fact  is  that  the  stream 
of  mankind  flows  on  forever  as  much  as  does  the  current  of  the  brook  ;  only 
as  the  drops  of  water  in  the  brook  change  moment  by  moment,  so  do  the  drops 
come  and  go  in  the  great  human  stream  ;  and  almost  as  like  as  drops  are  to 
drops  so  is  man  to  man.  Hands  from  which  had  scarcely  fallen  the  gauntlets 
of  Puritanism  wrote  in  primal  New  England  :  '  It  must  not  be  understood  that 
in  adopting  the  modern  language  of  botany  and  chemistry  we  have  consulted 
the  whims  of  every  pretender.  In  this  as  in  former  ages  men  are  creating  con- 
fusion by  creating  names.'  Wise  words  are  these,  which  the  coming  sub-com- 
mittee on  nomenclature  of  the  U.  S.  Pharmacopoeia  should  ponder  a  little  more 
seriously  than  have  their  immediate  predecessors.  '  In  this  as  in  preceding 
ages  men  are  creating  confusion  by  creating  names.'  Applicable  is  this  to  all 
sciences,  but  most  applicable  is  it  in  the  purely  natural  history  studies,  so-called, 
such  as  zoology  and  botany.  Smith,  or  Jones,  or  Thomson,  or  Cope,  written 
at  the  end  of  the  name  of  an  animal  or  plant  fails  not  in  its  influence  on 
human  personality.  I  well  remember  with  what  glee  and  pride  in  the  days  of 
my  callow  youth,  when  I  should  have  been  under  taskmasters  learning  methods 
and  facts,  I  first  saw  H.  C.  Wood  written  after  the  name  of  a  piece  of  fossil  drift- 
wood from  the  coal  fields  of  Pennsylvania.  The  boy  is  the  father  of  the  man. 
Unconsciously  there  remains  in  each  of  us  some  capacity  of  enjoyment  such 
as  was  in  the  boy  who,  pointing  to  his  name  in  the  newspaper,  said  to  his  old 
aunt,  .'That's  me.'  If  the  personal  element  could  be  withdrawn  from  the 
specific  nomenclature  of  animals  and  plants  there  probably  would  be  much 
simplification.  Let  it  be  said  of  none  of  us  that  we  have  created  confusion  by 
creating  names.  Why  must  the  poisoned  American  perish  while  we  are  search- 
ing our  memories  for  ferri  oxidum  hydratum  cum  magnesia  when  antidotum 
arsenica  might  have  saved  his  life,  if  only  he  had  lived  in  Germany. 
"  In  the  preface  of  the  Pharmacopoeia  of  1808  it  is  interesting  to  find  the 
germs  whose  subsequent  growth  has  cost  the  members  of  this  Convention  and 
its  committee  so  much  labor.  In  accordance  with  the  statement  in  the  preface, 
-  As  there  frequently  arise  errors  of  no  small  importance  from  the  promiscuous 
use  of  weights  and  measures,  it  is  proper  that  the  quantities  of  substances, 
whether  fluid  or  solid,  be  determined  by  weight.'  In  accordance  with  this  the 
framers  of  the  first  American  Pharmacopoeia  adopted  the  system  of  parts  by 
weight,  but,  unfortunately,  they  went  on  to  say  : 
"'Yet  it  may  suffice  to  measure  wine,  water  and  aqueous  liquids  in  some 
instances,  provided  that  for  this  purpose  vessels  be  employed,  of  glass,  where 
the  nature  of  the  substance  requires  it,  whose  capacities  and  divisions  accu- 
rately correspond  with  the  divisions  or  multiples  of  the  modern  pound.'  And 
so  saying  our  fathers  sowed  the  tares  which  grew  up  with  the  wheat,  and 
choked  out  the  true  grain  until  only  by  the  labor  of  many  years  were  they 
uprooted  and  the  system  of  parts  by  weight  in  its  purity  reinstated  in  the  U. 
