^'^'sivi^ssr'^'}        Sodio- Bismuth  Tartrate  and  Pepsin.  419 
spicuous  and  important  of  all^  the  highest  development  of  modern 
galenical  pharmacy,  the  compound  elixirs,  were  deliberately  frowned 
down. 
Xow,  in  regard  to  most  of  these,  and  others  similar  to  these,  not 
mentioned,  it  can  be  said  that  their  adoption  would  directly  oppose 
the  science  and  ethics  of  pharmacy,  and  that  such  endorsement  would 
virtually  pervert,  if  not  obliterate,  the  progress  of  scientific  pharmacy. 
Furthermore,  it  can  be  added  that  this  system  of  ready-made  prescrip- 
tions would  not  only  intensify  the  irregular  specialist  evil,  but  would 
also  react  most  injuriously  on  the  practice  of  medicine  itself.  But,  in 
answer,  it  can  be  said  that  the  specific  structure  of  the  medical  system 
is  of  no  legitimate  concern  to  pharmacy,  and  if  the  physician  insists 
on  demanding  this,  that  and  the  other  form  of  combination,  the  phar- 
macist can  do  no  better  than  furnish  the  desideratum  with  the  greatest 
possible  alacrity  and  grace. 
Now,  the  indubitable  fact  is  there,  and  a  very  potent  one,  that  there 
is  a  large  demand  for  these  products,  and  that  they  are  continuously 
forthcoming,  in  utter  contempt  of  the  Pharmacopoeia.  Of  course  the 
system  of  pharmacy,  if  sufficiently  co-ordinated,  and  consequently 
agreed  upon  standards,  can  dispense  with  the  Pharmacopeia.  But  the 
purpose  of  the  Pharmacopoeia  is  to  unify  and  authorize  these  stand- 
ards, and  hence  the  performance  of  this  function  consists  in  codifying 
the  expressed  law  of  the  system.  With  this  result  achieved  in  perfect 
correspondence  with  the  living  tendencies,  the  obnoxious  specialist 
must  now  subject  his  products  to  the  dimensions  of  the  standard,  and 
change  his  identity  accordingly,  or  wholly  disappear. 
If  the  system  of  medicine,  with  its  modern  agencies,  is  so  entirely 
at  variance  with  its  environment  that  the  correspondence,  if  any,  is  of 
the  most  imperfect  kind,  it  will  speedily  be  supplanted  by  a  better 
system ;  but  if  the  most  essential  parts  are  in  the  closest  relation,  and 
other  important  portions  are  yet  more  or  less  discordant,  the  necessary 
improvement  will  slowly  follow.  The  extraneous  system  of  phar- 
macy can  exert  little  or  no  influence  in  this  connection,  but  it  cannot 
possibly  do  better  for  itself  than  modulate  its  own  activities  in  sym- 
pathy with  these  changes. 
The  Pharmacopoeia  has  incorporated  pepsin  as  an  official  agent. 
It  has  given  an  excellent  description  of  the  article,  but  an  excellent 
process  for  its  preparation  would  have  been  infinitely  more  desirable. 
Most  of  the  saccharated  pepsin  of  commerce  is  chiefly  dried  mucus, 
