670  Additions  and  Deletions  to  N.  F.     { ^sapimberf ^q'z'S: 
one  would  rather  think  that  he  was  intended  to  be  a  research  student 
in  a  laboratory  to  the  end  of  his  days.  That  is  one  reason  why  the 
old  family  doctor  was  such  a  boon  to  the  community.  The  modern 
man,  crammed  with  theoretical  knowledge  and  laboratory  methods, 
is  far  behind  his  elder,  if  less  erudite  confrere,  so  far  as  the  practical 
side  of  his  profession  is  concerned.  He  knows  how  to  write  an 
ethical  prescription,  and  he  pulls  his  patient  through  without  sub- 
jecting him  to  laboratory  analysis  or  experimenting  on  his  stomach 
with  drugs  whose  actions  are  probably  at  the  most  but  vague  and 
uncertain.  The  modern  and  so-called  "up-to-date"  practitioner 
cannot  write  an  ethical  prescription,  cannot  weigh  up  the  pulse 
without  complicated  instruments,  cannot  recognize  a  fractured 
collar-bone  without  the  help  of  the  X-rays,  and  cannot  diagnose  an 
early  tuberculous  lesion  until  the  patient  has  been  "screened"  by  a 
radiologist.  We  doubt  if  all  this  makes  for  progress.  It  may  im- 
press the  public,  but  it  creates  in  our  minds  a  feeling  of  diffidence 
and  uncertainty. 
LIST  OF  PROPOSED  ADDITIONS  AND  DELETIONS  TO  THE 
NATIONAL  FORMULARY. 
At  the  recent  meeting  of  the  National  Formulary  Committee,  it 
was  decided  to  submit  to  the  medical  and  pharmaceutical  journals 
a  list  of  the  official  titles  which  had  been  proposed  for  deletion  in 
the  revision  of  the  work  and  likewise  a  list  of  titles  which  so  far  have 
been  proposed  for  admission  in  the  Revised  Formulary.  These  are 
published  as  a  tentative  proposition  for  the  information  of  the 
pharmaceutical  and  medical  professions  in  the  hope  that  those 
interested  will  express  their  opinions  thereon  either  through  the 
medium  of  the  Journal  or  directly  to  the  Chairman  of  the  Com- 
mittee, Wilbur  L.  Scoville,  P.  O.  Box  488,  Detroit,  Mich.  The 
final  decision  of  the  Committee  will  depend  very  largely  upon  these 
expressions  of  approval  or  disapproval  of  the  proposed  actions. 
In  addition  to  the  list  of  proposed  additions,  the  Committee 
solicits  from  dental  and  veterinary  associations  a  list  of  articles  of 
sufficient  use  in  these  branches  of  medicine  to  merit  recognition 
by  standard  formulas  in  the  National  Formulary.  The  Com- 
mittee welcomes  suggestions  from  any  source. 
