Am.  Jonr.  Pharm.  \ 
December,  1900.  J 
German  Phar macopceia. 
567 
Official  Acids. 
G.P. 
B.P. 
U.S.P. 
68- 
I7-44 
IO' 
......  6o- 
66-3 
85' 
13-8 
IO' 
 94'-98' 
98; 
92'5 
13*65 
IO* 
Among  other  differences  it  will  be  seen  that  what  is  official  in  the 
German  Pharmacopoeia  as  acetic  acid  very  nearly  corresponds  to  our 
glacial  acetic  acid,  and  that  our  acetic  acid  is  only  slightly  stronger 
than  the  dilute  acid  of  the  German  Pharmacopoeia.  It  is  very 
important  to  keep  these  possible  variations  in  the  strength  of  the 
various  preparations  in  mind,  and  especially  in  experimenting  with 
or  in  making  up  formulae  copied  from  foreign  journals.  A  still 
more  serious  variation  is  shown  in  the  following  table  of  some  of 
the  official  tinctures : 
Strength  of  Tinctures  in 
G.P. 
B.P. 
U.S.P. 
5' 
35* 
2'5 
IO" 
5' 
5* 
37 
5' 
20  • 
IO" 
20' 
,  15* 
12-5 
IO" 
20* 
25 
7* 
■ 
075 
1  "3-i  '5 
Squill   
20- 
15' 
2-5 
5* 
It  may  be  noted  that  tinctures  of  the  German  Pharmacopoeia 
generally  represent  IO  or  20  per  cent,  of  the  crude  drug,  while  those 
in  our  own  Pharmacopoeia  vary  from  5  to  35  per  cent;  while  in  the 
British  from  2-5  to  20  per  cent,  of  the  crude  drug  is  contained  in 
the  finished  product.  This  variation  in  the  strength  of  these 
various  preparations  is  extremely  unfortunate,  and  particularly  is 
this  so  in  the  case  of  those  in  the  German  Pharmacopoeia,  for  not 
only  is  there  a  large  and  growing  demand  in  this  country  for  Ger- 
man medical  literature  both  in  the  original  German  and  also  in 
translations  into  English,  but  in  addition  to  this  many  graduates  of 
American  medical  schools  annually  go  to  Germany  for  a  post- 
graduate course,  and  naturally  absorb  German  ideas  and  methods. 
