506    ,        American  Pharmaceutical  Association.  {^l^S^S: 
great  a  man  as  he  on  the  wrong  side  of  any  question.  When  he  proposes  to  change  our 
arithmetic,  adopt  a  duodecimal  notation  in  place  of  the  one  now  in  use,  and  construct  an 
entirely  new  system  of  weights  and  measures  to  correspond,  he  is  not  likely  to  have  much  of 
a  following.  Tried  for  his  offence  by  a  jury  of  his  peers,  he  is  quite  certain  to  be  condemned. 
He  has  been  ably  answered  by  one  of  our  members.  We  trust  that  it  cannot  long  be  said, 
reproachfully,  that  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States  are  the  only  two  influential  nations 
which  have  not  adopted  the  metric  system  of  weights  and  measures. 
The  speaker  expressed  himself  as  pleased,  also,  with  the  work  which  the  Committee  on 
the  Status  of  Pharmacists  in  the  Army  and  Navy  of  the  United  States  had  done.  He  hoped 
the  naval  apothecary  would  finally  be  granted  at  least  the  same  rank  and  pay  as  the  surgeon- 
major.  An  event  of  importance  in  the  work  of  the  Association,  this  year,  is  the  issuing  of  a 
new  edition  of  the  National  Formulary.  The  first  edition  was  a  popular  work,  and  the 
second  is  an  improvement  on  that. 
Continuing,  the  speaker  said  :  Considering  the  suggestions  embodied  in  the  report  of  the 
delegates  to  the  Section  on  Materia  Medica  and  Pharmacy  of  the  American  Medical  Associa- 
tion, it  would  undoubtedly  be  desirable  to  have  introduced  into  the  Pharmacopoeia  a  table  of 
average  doses  of  remedies.  This  would  make  the  book  more  popular  with  druggists,  as  well 
as  among  the  physicians.  There  are  difficulties  in  the  way  of  preparing  such  a  table  for  a 
work  that  is  authoritative  and  likely  to  be  used  as  such  in  cases  of  prosecution.  A  physician 
might  hesitate  to  administer  an  apparently  excessive  dose  of  any  remedy,  even  though  the 
exigencies  of  the  case  seemed  to  demand  it,  if  it  were  possible  to  use  such  an  authority 
against  him.  Furthermore,  when  doctors  disagree,  who  shall  say  what  is  an  average  dose  of 
any  particular  drug.  It  is  thought  possible,  if  a  carefully- worded  text  accompany  the  table, 
that  these  objections  will  lose  their  force,  and  the  expression  "average  dose"  has  the  merit 
of  being  a  more  elastic  one  than  "  maximum  dose."  I  should  be  in  favor,  therefore,  of  a 
resolution  by  this  Association,  requesting  the  introduction  into  the  next  Pharmacopoeia  of  a 
table  of  average  doses  of  official  drugs  and  their  preparations. 
As  to  the  second  proposition — to  admit  certain  of  the  "  new  remedies  "  into  the  Pharma- 
copoeia— it  seems  to  me  to  deny  official  recognition  to  any  medicinal  agent  which  is  protected 
by  proprietary  rights,  is  indisputably  the  correct  ethical  position.  Any  of  that  character 
which  are  now  so  honored,  and  "  which  cannot  be  produced  otherwise  than  under  a  patented 
process,"  should  be  dismissed.  The  physician  is  not  by  such  action  deprived  of  their  use  as 
remedial  agents.  Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  many  of  these  S3'nthetic  compounds  possess 
positive  therapeutic  value,  and  skill  and  knowledge  have  been  exercised  in  their  production, 
until  our  patent  and  trade-mark  laws  can  be  so  changed  as  to  protect  the  public  against  extor- 
tion, they  should  continue  to  bear  the  "stigma  of  illegitimacy."  Probably  many  of  the  claims 
which  have  been  set  up  under  the  trade-mark  and  copyright  laws  would  be  found  to  be  ficti- 
tious if  properly  contested.  Certainly  a  law  which  will  allow  a  person  to  register  the  name 
of  a  drug  as  a  trade-mark,  and  thereby  secure  the  monopoly  of  a  medicinal  substance  for  all 
time,  is  fundamentally  wrong. 
The  speaker  thought  that  were  those  matters  represented  to  Congress  in  the  proper 
manner  the  laws  would  be  modified  in  the  near  future,  although,  no  doubt,  any  effort  in  that 
direction  would  be  stubbornly  opposed.  The  alcohol  question  was  still  an  open  one.  In  place 
of  the  resolution  passed  at  the  annual  meeting  in  1894,  he  would  submit  the  following 
modification  : 
Resolved,  That  it  is  the  sense  of  this  Association  that  the  payment  of  the  rebate  of  the 
internal  revenue  tax  on  alcohol  should  be  confined  to  alcohol  used  in  the  manufacture  of 
chemicals,  alkaloids,  ethers,  chloral,  chloroform,  and  such  other  medicinal  or  industrial  pro- 
ducts as  those  in  which  the  alcohol  used  will  lose,  absolutely,  its  chemical  and  physical 
properties. 
Mention  was  made  of  the  International  Exposition  at  Prague,  which  was  opened  on 
August  15th,  and  that  the  Association  would  be  represented  there  by  Dr.  F.  Hoffmann,  who  is 
now  in  Europe.  The  President  proposed  that  greetings  be  sent  the  gathering  by  the 
Association. 
The  speaker  having  concluded,  Vice-President  Dohme  asked  the  pleasure  of 
the  meeting  regarding  the  address.  It  was  voted  to  receive  it  and  refer  it  to  a 
committee  of  three,  to  be  appointed  by  the  chair.  Messrs.  Diehl,  Butler  and 
Simpson  were  made  this  Committee.  Secretary  Charles  Caspari,  Jr.,  then 
called  for  the  reports  of  the  various  standing  and  special  committees. 
