214  Standardization  of  Officinal  Drugs.  {Am,Ma£;\marm- 
Here  I  would  like  to  make  a  suggestion  to  the  pharmaceutical 
associations.  It  has  become  customary  for  us  to  have  a  yearly 
report  from  a  committee  on  adulterations,  and  these  reports  have 
been  printed  and  given  to  the  public  as  monumental  proofs  of  the 
dishonesty  of  pharmacists.  Instead  of  publishing  such  reports  in 
future  let  the  committee  prosecute  all  cases  where  there  is  evidence 
of  deliberate  adulteration  or  falsification.  Ten  convictions  would 
be  a  more  wholesome  lesson  than  ten  thousand  reports. 
It  behooves  us  to  take  a  glance  backward  and  see  whether  the 
methods  of  assaying  organic  drugs  introduced  in  the  last  Pharma- 
copoeia have  met  with  anything  like  universal  favor  or  adoption. 
The  Pharmacopoeia  of  1880,  introduced  methods  of  assaying  and 
fixed  standards  for  such  organic  drugs  as  Cinchona,  Opium  and  Pep- 
sin. Have  these  been  accepted  as  authority  and  generally  adopted? 
The  method  of  opium  assay  has  been  severely  criticised,  and  it  is 
doubtful  if  to-day  a  handful  of  chemists  are  following  this  method. 
Nearly  every  chemist  who  does  much  of  this  work  has  his  own 
modification  of  Squibb's,  Fliickiger's  or  other  proposed  methods  of 
assay.  The  introduction  of  jthe  so-called  strong  pepsins  necessitated 
some  new  method  of  assay.  The  officinal  process  for  assaying 
saccharated  pepsin  was  declared  to  be  faulty,  primarily  because  the 
results  given  were  not  high  enough.  To-day  every  manufacturer 
of  this  article  is  offering  some  modification  of  the  pharmacopceial  or 
national  formulary  test,  especially  devised  to  show  the  superiority  of 
his  product  over  that  of  competitors.  Their  sole  idea  appears  to 
be,  not  to  find  the  most  accurate  method,  but  to  so  alter  the  condi- 
tions as  to  obtain  the  greatest  apparent  digestive  value. 
These  two  cases  serve  but  to  illustrate  the  probable  fate  of 
methods  of  assay  introduced  in  the  Pharmacopoeia.  If  any  manu- 
facturer desires  for  business  purposes  to  show  increased  strength  or 
value  in  a  preparation,  he  will  simply  drop  the  officinal  standard, 
puff  himself  and  preparation  through  the  advertising  columns  of  the 
medical  and  pharmaceutical  journals  and  circulars  to  physicians. 
The  physician  in  search  of  a  new  lesson  in  materia  medica  seldom 
stops  to  inquire  what  are  the  officinal  requirements ;  but,  at  the  first 
opportunity  prescribes  Jones'  Solution  of  Pepsin,  or  Liquor  Ergotae 
Dick's  and  obtains  results  identical  with  those  he  had  previously 
obtained  from  the  preparations  of  the  neighboring  pharmacist  made 
in  accordance  with  the  officinal  standard. 
