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ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS 
of voluntary labor on the part of its compilers, and which 
is merely recommended for the adoption of our physicians 
and pharmaceutists, and whose formulae may be employed or 
rejected, as intelligence or caprice may dictate, the French 
Codex must be observed by both professions, because it is a 
part of the law of the land. 
It is not necessary here, to discuss the relative advantages 
of an authorized official code for the preparation of remedies, 
and one which is the result of voluntary labor, merely recom- 
mended for adoption; we will merely state that our own views 
incline to the former, and w r e regret that the nature of our 
political institutions prevents our ever obtaining the advan- 
tages which we believe can be derived from such a pharma- 
copoeia, as might be prepared, if the national government 
possessed the power, to have one carefully digested and com- 
piled, and then to enforce its regulations throughout the 
nation. The lamentable want of uniformity which exists in 
the preparation of standard officinal medicines, and the great 
variety of synonymous terms employed, not only in different 
states, but in the same states, even in the same towns, shows 
most conclusively the necessity of an authorized standard for 
the preparation and nomenclature of our medicinal agents. The 
publication of the United States Pharmacopoeia has, perhaps, 
had some tendency to diminish the evil of want of uniformity, 
but it still exists to a great extent; and our only reliance for 
improvement, in this respect, is, that the next convention 
may be sufficiently numerous to embrace among its members 
representatives from every part of the Union, whose personal 
influence, in their own sections, will give the weight and im- 
portance of authority to the work, which their assembled 
wisdom may usher forth. 
With these few remarks upon the propriety of an au- 
thorized Pharmacopoeia, let us examine the French Codex, 
and see whether it has the characteristics we have pre- 
mised such a work should possess. These were, first, a list 
of every substance which it is required that the pharma- 
ceutist should provide; secondly, every direction necessary 
for the preparation of the officinal compounds; thirdly, every 
