Am  Jour.  Pharm. V 
March,  1884.  j. 
fmtoriats. 
175; 
Pharmacopoeia,  which,  when  completed,  shall  be  printed  under  the  super- 
vision of  the  said  board;  and  an  edition  of  not  less  than  five  thousand 
copies  shall  be  printed  for  use  in  the  several  Departments  of  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  United  States ;  and  copies  may  be  furnished  to  private  persons 
in  accordance  with  the  provisions  of  section  thirty-eight  hundred  and  nine 
of  the  Revised  Statutes. 
Sec.  3.  That,  for  the  purpose  of  defraying  the  necessary  expenses  of  pre- 
paring the  said  Pharmacopoeia,  the  sum  of  five  thousand  dollars  is  hereby 
appropriated  out  of  any  moneys  in  the  Treasury  not  otherwise  appro- 
priated, and  the  same  shall  be  disbursed  under  regulations  to  be  prescribed 
by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury. 
Sec.  4.  That  the  said  Pharmacopoeia  shall  be  revised  once  in  ten  years, 
upon  the  plan  embodied  in  this  Act. 
Without  intending  for  the  present  to  enter  into  details,  we  merely  wish 
to  point  out  what,  in  oar  opinion,  would  be  the  most  important  result  of  a 
law  recognizing  a  Pharmacopoeia  for  the  United  States.  We  find  this  in 
the  legal  establishment  of  standards  for  medicines  imported  or  sold  under 
certain  titles  (those  of  the  Pharmacopoeia). 
Regarding  the  plan  for  the  formation  of  a  committee  for  preparing  such 
a  work,  it  will  be  observed  that  three  distinct  Government  Departments 
are  to  be  represented  therein,  each  by  two  medical  officers.  Excepting  the 
importations  of  medicines,  these  Departments  are  directly  interested,  in 
the  first  place,  only  to  the  extent  of  the  supplies  for  their  hospitals,  and  as 
for  all  hospitals  the  regular  supplies  furnished  are  limited  in  variety,  but 
the  special  supplies  may  embrace  any  article  of  medicinal  use.  In  this 
respect,  these  medical  officers  are  in  a  similar  position  as  all  other  physi- 
cians who,  as  a  rule,  employ  only  a  very  limited  number  of  drugs  ;  but  the 
former,  from  the  occasional  change  of  their  sphere  of  activity,  have  the 
best  opportunities  of  familiarizing  themselves  with  the  remedies  used  in 
different  sections  of  the  country ;  and,  in  addition  to  this,  according  to  the 
proposed  law,  they  are  to  invite  the  co-operation  of  the  National  Medical 
and  Pharmaceutical  Associations.  It  would  therefore  seem  as  if  by  this 
plan  the  real  wants  of  all  parts  of  the  country  could  well  and  properly  be 
ascertained  and  taken  care  of. 
The  experience  of  all  countries  have  shown  that  the  real  work  in  prepar- 
ing a  Pharmacopoeia  must  be  done  by  pharmacists,  while  it  belongs  to  the 
special  province  of  the  physician  to  designate  the  drugs  and  preparations 
which  should  be  admitted  in  such  a  work,  and  of  the  galenical  prepara- 
tions also  their  relation  to  the  drug  from  which  they  are  made.  Unfortu- 
nately, pharmacy,  as  such,  is  not  recognized  in  the  different  Government 
Departments,  and  we  fear  that  it  will  be  a  long  time  before  it  will  be 
accorded  that  position  which  it  holds  in  France.  On  the  part  of  these 
Departments,  therefore,  pharmacists  cannot  be  detailed  for  such  a  duty ; 
but  provision  has  been  made  that  the  board  may  "  add  to  its  number  as  in  its 
judgment  may  be  necessary,"  and,  if  this  power  is  judiciously  exercised,  it 
will  doubtless  be  in  the  direction  of  adding  pharmacists  and  other  experts 
with  the  view  of  making  the  contemplated  work  as  useful  and  reliable  as 
possible. 
