270 
Reviews. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
May,  1896. 
metric  system  of  weights  and  measures,  passed  July  twenty-eighth,  eighteen  hundred  and 
sixty-six,  shall  be  the  tables  of  equivalents  which  may  be  lawfully  used  for  computing,  deter- 
mining, and  expressing  the  customary  weights  and  measures  in  the  weights  and  measures  oT 
the  metric  system." 
This  revised  bill  passed  the  House  of  Representatives  by  a  vote  of  119  to  117. 
By  one  of  those  mysterious  influences  which  frequently  prevail  in  legislative 
bodies,  a  motion  to  reconsider  was  made  and  carried.  It  was  then  referred  back 
to  the  Committee  on  Coinage,  Weights  and  Measures,  so  that  now  it  is  just 
where  it  was  two  months  ago. 
The  exertions  of  those  in  favor  of  a  rational  system  of  weights  and  measures 
will  now  need  to  be  redoubled,  and  everyone  should  write  to  his  Repre- 
sentative at  Washington  requesting  him  to  vote  for  H.  R.,  No.  7,251.  The 
Special  Committee  on  Weights  and  Measures  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical 
Association,  of  which  Professor  Frank  G.  Ryan  is  chairman,  is  taking  active 
steps  to  have  all  the  State  Pharmaceutical  Associations  adopt  resolutions  favor- 
ing the  passage  of  this  bill.  It  is  evident  that  some  pharmacists  are  opposed 
to  the  bill  simply  because  they  are  ignorant  of  what  the  results  of  favorable 
action  would  be.  They  appear  to  think  that  every  weight  and  measure  would 
have  to  be  calculated  into  the  metric  system,  not  realizing  that  it  is  as  easy  to 
use  a  set  of  metric  weights  as  any  other,  and  that  not  nearly  so  many  conver- 
sions of  weights  by  calculation  would  be  necessary  as  now. 
It  is  only  a  question  of  time  when  the  whole  world  will  use  the  metric  system. 
Will  the  United  States  be  the  last  to  fall  into  line  ? 
PENNSYLVANIA  PHARMACEUTICAL  ASSOCIATION. 
The  following  notice  will  interest  many  pharmacists  of  this  State  : 
The  Pennsylvania  Pharmaceutical  Association  will  hold  its  nineteenth  annual 
meeting  at  the  Holly  Inn,  Mt.  Holly  Springs,  Cumberland  County,  on  the 
16th,  17th  and  18th  of  June  next.    The  change  has  been  made  from  the 
Gettysburg  Springs  Hotel,  which  will  not  be  opened  this  season. 
J.  A.  Miller,  Secretary. 
REVIEWS  AND  BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTICES. 
The  National  Formulary  oe  Unofficial  Preparations.  Revised 
edition.    By  authority  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association,  1896. 
Next  to  the  Pharmacopoeia,  the  National  Formulary  holds  the  most  important 
place  among  the  every-day  books  of  the  pharmacist.  The  present  edition  bids 
fair  to  maintain  this  position,  for,  under  the  chairmanship  of  Professor  Diehl, 
the  Committee  have  produced  a  book  which  well  deserves  the  attention  it  will 
get  from  every  practical  pharmacist  in  the  land. 
No  doubt  there  are  many  unofficial  formulas  in  existence  which  are  not 
found  in  its  pages,  but  the  members  of  the  Committee  have  done  the  best  they 
could,  and  they  are  deserving  of  great  praise.  Their  reasons  for  declining  to 
recognize  the  demands  for  some  formulas  are  set  forth  in  the  preface,  as  follows  : 
The  demand  for  additional  formulas  has  been  carefully  considered  by  the  Committee.  This 
demand,  unfortunately,  was  in  most  cases  for  working  formulas  for  preparations  which  have 
come  into  current  use  under  fanciful  trade  names,  and  for  which  no  formulas,  other  than 
obscure  indications  of  composition  borne  on  the  labels,  are  known  to  pharmacy.  The  Com- 
mittee did  not  consider  it  within  the  scope  of  their  duties  to  devise  and  construct  formulas  for 
