2i6  Comments  on  Magendie's  Formulary,   j^'"' •^A^rii!^92o! 
and  it  may  even  lead  us  to  read  history.  But  why  should  we  have  a 
particular  interest  in  1820,  aside  from  the  interest  which  attaches 
to  a  time  an  even  hundred  years  ago?  The  fact  is,  1820  marks  the 
close  of  an  epoch.  It  marks  the  time  when  pharmacy,  until  then 
wholly  dominated  by  European  thought  and  precedent,  awakened 
to  its  opportunity  and  struck  for  a  certain  independence.  That  very 
year  the  first  national  pharmacopoeia  was  issued.  A  few  months 
later,  in  Carpenter's  Hall,  the  first  organization  of  apothecaries 
was  formed.  And  a  few  months  after  that,  this  organization — 
The  Philadelphia  College  of  Apothecaries — opened  its  doors  for  the 
first  session  and  for  the  first  class  of  American  students  in  pharmacy. 
Hence,  1820  has  a  special  significance  for  pharmacy. 
What  1776  is  to  us  as  Americans,  1820  is  to  us  as  American 
pharmacists. 
COMMENTS  ON  MAGENDIE'S  FORMULARY.* 
By  Charles  H.  LaWali.,  Ph.M. 
PHII^ADElyPHIA,  PA. 
Books  reflect  the  spirit  of  the  time  in  which  they  were  written  as 
well  as  the  knowledge  of  their  authors. 
Few  books  in  science  outlast  more  than  a  decade,  or  so,  of  active 
utility;  after  that  they  are  usually  of  value  only  for  occasional  refer- 
ence, and  a  scientific  book  which  is  nearly  a  century  old  is  more  in- 
teresting as  a  curiosity  than  for  any  practical  value  it  may  have  in 
the  science  to  which  it  relates. 
It  is  interesting,  however,  to  carefully  review  one  of  these  older 
books  occasionally  to  bring  one  to  a  realizing  sense  of  how  conditions 
have  changed  during  a  given  period  of  time. 
In  pharmacy,  medicine  and  chemistry  such  surveys  are  of  pe- 
culiar value,  for  not  only  has  there  been  a  revolutionary  change  in  the 
practice  of  each  of  these  professions  but  the  very  nomenclature  has 
undergone  such  a  metamorphosis  that  the  student  of  to-day  would 
often  find  much  of  the  text  unintelligible  without  the  use  of  a  glossary. 
Magendie's  Formulary  is  a  small  book  issued  in  an  English  transla- 
tion in  1824.    The  book  is  of  peculiar  interest  to  pharmacists,  chem- 
*  Read  at  the  meeting  of  the  Philadelphia  Branch  of  the  American  Pharma- 
ceutical Association. 
