Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  "I 
October,  J900.  J 
Editorial. 
507 
While  it  is  evident  that  it  is  dangerous  for  the  people,  generally 
speaking,  to  take  their  lives,  when  in  ill  health,  in  their  own  hands, 
still  it  must  be  admitted  that  much  of  the  knowledge  of  medicine 
is  empirical  and  has  come  to  us  by  virtue  of  the  experiences  of 
people  (for  generations  back)  who  did  not  understand  the  action  of 
drugs,  but  who  found  out  in  nature's  own  way  how  to  alleviate  their 
sufferings  and  cure  their  ills.  There  is  much  practical  medicine 
still  in  the  heads  of  certain  classes  of  people  who  use  their  common 
sense.  They  still  go  to  the  apothecary  or  herb  vendors  of  the 
markets  for  sassafras,  boneset,  mandrake,  etc.,  and  when  the  baby 
has  colic  give  it  soda-mint,  Dewee's  carminative,  etc.;  and  when  a 
muscle  aches  a  liniment  will  be  had  of  the  apothecary.  So  far 
as  we  know,  they  seem  to  be  as  well  off  as  the  patient  loaded  down 
with  calomel  or  salicylates,  or  the  baby  dosed  with  chalk-mixture, 
etc.  Nature  seems  to  have  been  the  great  restorative,  correcting 
the  ills  of  the  body  and  the  abuses  of  medicines.  People  will,  in  a 
measure,  continue  to  order  their  own  medicines,  and  if  the  Pharma- 
copoeia does  not  contain  the  important  time-honored  and  tried 
medicines  in  its  pages  there  should  be  some  one  book  which  should 
take  cognizance  of  these  drugs  and  preparations  as  rapidly  as  they 
are  discarded  by  the  Pharmacopoeia.  It  is  not  sufficient  to  say  that 
other  books  will  contain  descriptions  of  these  medicaments  and  the 
proper  formulae,  as  it  is  well  known  there  are  books  and  there  are 
books.  Very  recently  a  work  by  a  physician  and  teacher  in  a  medi- 
cal school,  which  contained  such  information  as  the  following,  was 
reviewed  in  this  Journal:  "Taka-diastase,  a  ferment  produced  by 
the  action  of  Japanese  rice  fungus ;  used  as  a  disinfectant."  Fortu- 
nately, the  National  Formulary  has  arisen  in  the  United  States,  and 
promises  to  be  the  authorized  vade  mecum  of  all  drugs  and  prepa- 
rations that  have  been  useful  in  their  day  in  the  hands  of  the  intelli- 
gent medical  practitioner  and  which  have  been  replaced  by  sub- 
stances far  more  efficient  in  his  hands,  but  which  are  still  largely 
used  by  the  common  people  as  well  as  by  some  physicians.  While 
the  Pharmacopoeia  will  doubtless  contain  such  information  as  assures 
uniformity  in  the  more  important  drugs  and  substances  employed 
in  medicine  by  the  intelligent  physician,  the  National  Formulary 
should  become  the  authorized  volume  to  insure  to  physicians  as 
well  as  the  public  drugs  of  nearly  uniform  kind  and  prepara- 
tions of  nearly  uniform  composition  that  are  still  largely  used,  but 
