THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY 
DECEMBER,  1899. 
SOME  PHARMACOPCEIAL  PROBLEMS. 
By  Chakxks  Rice. 
While  each  new  Pharmacopoeia,  at  the  time  of  its  appearance, 
represents,  in  a  general  way,  the  then  existing  state  of  therapeutic 
and  pharmaceutical  progress,  there  is,  naturally,  no  lack  of  new 
problems,  which  continue  to  present  themselves  for  consideration, 
not  only  after  the  work  is  issued,  but  sometimes  also  while  it  is  still 
passing  through  the  press.  In  the  case  of  our  own  Pharmacopoeia, 
a  number  of  quite  serious  problems  were  encountered  during  the 
last  two  revisions,  some  of  which,  as,  for  instance,  the  admission  of 
"  patented  "  synthetics,  were  solved  by  the  dictate  of  the  National 
Convention,  while  others,  such  as  nomenclature  and  standardization 
of  all  drugs  except  cinchona  and  opium,  were  left  to  the  discretion 
of  the  Committee  of  Revision.  The  Committee  endeavored  to 
solve  these  problems  to  the  best  of  its  ability,  and  their  decisions 
and  action  have,  on  the  whole,  met  with  approval  on  the  part  of 
competent  judges.  Among  the  more  important  problems  which 
confronted  the  present  Committee  of  Revision  was  that  of  emanci- 
pating the  Pharmacopoeia  from  the  control  of  the  publishing  trade, 
and  of  setting  it  up  on  an  independent  financial  basis.  This  prob- 
lem may  be  regarded  as  definitely  solved,  and,  therefore,  may  be 
omitted  from  consideration  here.  Disregarding  the  minor  problems 
which  affect  the  details  and  minutiae  of  the  text  of  the  articles  con- 
tained in  the  Pharmacopoeia,  there  remain  certain  subjects  which 
stand  out  more  prominently,  and  are  worthy  of  general  discussion. 
They  are,  moreover,  of  such  a  nature  that  they  should  be  definitely 
(559) 
