418 
Sodio- Bismuth  Tartrate  and  Pepsin. 
f  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
1       Sept.,  1885. 
ciently  capable  and  right  minded  to  escape  the  stigma  wholly.  As 
elsewhere,  the  discordant  elements  are  here,  sorted  out  in  the  general 
test  of  fitness;  the  gradual  augmentation  of  better  and  better  mdi- 
viduals  incidentally  perfects  the  whole.  This  makes  it  clear  that 
quackery  is  but  a  relative  term,  and  that  it  is  by  no  means  as  special 
as  it  would  seem. 
The  system  of  pharmacy,  as  voiced  by  its  Pharmacopoeia,  declares 
that  an  extensive  class  of  preparations,  conventionally  termed  scien- 
tific specialties,"  are  essentially  unscientific,  that  all  endorsement  of 
them  should  be  withheld,  and  that  their  manufacture  should  be 
emphatically  and  systematically  discouraged.  Now,  it  is  one  of  the 
best  known  facts  in  the  business  of  pharmacy  that  the  annual  con- 
sumption of  this  class  of  goods  is  an  enormous  aggregate,  and  that 
physicians,  by  a  large  majority,  and  among  them  the  most  prominent^ 
lavishly  employ  them.  Even  granting  their  utter  worthlessness,  it  is 
presumption,  to  say  the  least,  for  pharmacy  to  decide  this  question. 
Under  the  circumstances,  there  is  no  better  method  calculated  to  per- 
petuate this  so-called  evil  than  to  antagonize  it  by  attempting  to  ignore  it. 
The  Pharmacopoeia  at  each  revision  incorporates  long  lists,  and 
among  them  whole  classes  of  articles  that  are  scarcely  known  in  a 
general  way,  and  much  less  used.  In  consequence  of  this  procedure 
each  revision  is  also  characterized  by  the  dismissal  of  lists  of  articles 
equally  long.  In  the  main,  there  is  obviously  little  difference  between 
the  members  of  the  two  lists ;  the  only  reason  for  the  change  seems 
to  consist  in  giving  all  ephemerides  a  chance.  It  is,  however,  with 
the  greatest  difficulty  that  well-known  and  long  popular  material  is 
admitted.  This  opposition  even  manifests  itself  in  the  dismissal  of 
approved  and  staple  compounds,  of  which  at  least  a  dozen  can  be 
readily  enumerated.  Xow,  whilst  the  last  revision  is  especially 
characterized  by  an  unusual  addition  of  obsolete  and  absolute  lumber, 
the  most  urgent  needs  have  been  mainly  neglected.  For  instance,  the 
rubber  plasters  should  have  been  recognized  ;  a  much  desired  formula 
for  carbolic  oil  was  omitted;  the  highly  useful  and  popular  powdered 
extracts  were  forgotten ;  the  long  staple  and  nearly  indispensable 
extract  of  meat,  and  its  various  adjunct  compounds,  were  ignored ; 
the  favorite  so-called  acid  phosphates,  nutritive  phosphates  and  albumi- 
nates should  have  been  acceptably  considered ;  emulsions  in  general 
and  the  highly  popular  and  strongly  staple  emulsions  of  cod  liver  oil 
Avith  adjunct  compounds  remained  utterly  unnoticed;  the  most  con- 
