588  Relative  Activity  of  Digitalis.      l^J^l;  ?g?£m' 
the  process  of  cleaning  the  drug  showed  an  activity  of  between  one 
fifth  and  one  sixth  that  of  the  clean  drug. 
The  hairs  of  the  digitalis  leaf  apparently  do  not  contain  any  or, 
at  most,  a  relatively  small  amount  of  the  glucosidal  principles  of  the 
drug. 
Infusions  of  the  dirt  siftings  produced  physiological  effects  upon 
guinea  pigs  and  cats  not  characteristic  of  digitalis. 
College  of  Pharmacy, 
University  of  Minnesota. 
THE  NEXT  U.  S.  P.  REVISION.1 
By  E.  Fullerton  Cook,  Ph.M. 
The  Pharmacopceial  decade  is  rapidly  passing  and  preconvention 
recommendations  for  an  improved  Pharmacopoeia  are  already  being 
heard  in  appreciable  numbers. 
A  gratifying  feature  of  these  comments  is  the  almost  entire  ab- 
sence of  serious  criticism  concerning  the  actual  text  of  the  U.  S.  P. 
IX.  A  few  errors  or  desirable  changes  have  been  pointed  out  and 
are  mostly  corrected  in  the  later  printings  of  the  U.  S.  P.  IX.  New 
conditions,  brought  about  by  the  war,  have  altered  the  status  of  cer- 
tain important  trade-marked  preparations,  so  that  it  is  possible  to 
now  include  these  in  the  official  list.  This  will  likely  be  done 
through  the  publications  of  a  supplement  to  the  U.  S.  P.  IX,  a  pro- 
cedure authorized  by  the  1910  Convention. 
The  burden  of  criticism  and  suggestion  in  published  comments, 
however,  seems  to  centre  about  the  question  of  a  more  speedy  re- 
vision and  various  proposals,  to  further  this  end,  have  been  made. 
One  of  these  recommendations  advises  an  immediate  revision  of 
the  book  by  the  present  Committee  and  the  presentation  to  the  Con- 
vention in  1920  of  the  completed  manuscript  for  the  U.  S.  P.  X. 
Another  plan  proposes  the  establishment  of  a  permanent  U.  S.  P. 
laboratory,  with  the  financial  support  of  the  U.  S.  P.  Board  of  Trus- 
tees, or  perhaps  the  United  States  Government,  for  the  purpose  of 
working  out  the  problems  of  revision  and  for  preparing  the  manu- 
script, supposedly  in  less  time  than  heretofore  required.  Still  other 
ideas  concentrate  upon  an  immediate  and  closer  coordination,  of  the 
1  Read  before  the  Pennsylvania  Pharmaceutical  Association,  June,  1918. 
