AjuiyT'i874EM}        International  PharmacojJtfia.  319 
by  name  to  both,  differ  widely  in  their  doses  and  activity  on  one  and 
on  tbe  other  side  of  the  Atlantic. 
"  Speaking  generally,  these  variations  unhappily  affect  the  more 
potent  remedies  rather  than  the  others. 
"  The  notion  of  an  international  pharmacopoeia  has  been  broached, 
and  has  many  recommendations,  although  we  apprehend  the  more  or 
less  divergent  medical  opinions  afloat  in  different  countries,  and  still 
more,  circumstances  dictated  by  peculiarities  in  modes  of  life,  in  cli- 
mates and  in  floras,  will  lead  each  nation  to  claim  more  or  fewer  special 
drugs,  and  so  destroy  absolute  uniformity. 
"  On  the  other  hand,  there  would  be  a  sufficient  array  of  substances 
and  formulae  admitting  of  so  much  concurrence  as  in  some  measure 
to  attain  the  object  desired.  But,  however  this  may  be,  there  is  good 
reason  for  bringing  the  British  and  United  States  Pharmacopoeias 
more  in  accord,  and  so  far  making  the  first  move  towards  an  inter- 
national codex,  and  we  should  be  pleased  to  hear  of  communications 
being  opened  between  the  committee  for  the  British  and  the  con- 
vention for  the  United  States'  Pharmacopoeia  in  anticipation  of  so 
desirable  an  object." 
No  teacher  who  has  endeavored  to  instruct  a  class  in  medicine  or 
pharmacy  composed  of  students  representing  both  nations  will  fail  to 
realize  the  difficulty — not  to  say  impossibility — attendant  upon  the 
labor  of  attempting  to  define  and  fix  upon  their  minds  the  ever  vary- 
ing strength  and  dosage  of  such  important  officinals  as  the  reviewer 
has  here  cited. 
And  no  physician  who  has  read  the  standard  British  authors  on 
therapeutics,  practice,  diseases  of  women  and  children,  and  the  like, 
with  a  view  to  making  their  precepts  available  in  the  treatment  of 
disease,  will  dissent  from  the  assertion  that  the  value  of  such  works 
is  seriously  impaired  and  sometimes  entirely  destroyed  by  the  same 
fact. 
The  subject  is  one  of  far  too  great  importance,  and  the  defect  too 
grave  in  its  actual  and  possible  consequences,  to  be  allowed  to  remain 
longer  unrecognized  ;  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  suggestion 
at  the  close  of  the  above  quotation  will  find  hearty  approbation  and 
cooperation  wherever  the  question  is  presented. 
Probably  the  chief  obstacle  to  a  universal  pharmacopoeia,  for  all 
civilized  nations  at  least,  will  be  found  in  the  diverse  systems  of 
weights  and  measures  employed  in  different  countries  ;  but  there  are 
