Amjm1Ue?i!?oarm'}  Convention  for  Revision  of  the  U.  S.  P.  305 
by  the  retiring  Committee,  of  the  general  principles  which  are  to  guide  the 
Committee  in  their  work  of  revision,  and  which  was  finally  adopted  as  follows  : 
(1)  General  Directions. — The  Committee  of  Revision,  etc.,  is  directed  to 
follow  the  general  principles  adopted  by  the  Convention  in  1880,  so  far  as  the 
same  are  not  modified  or  superseded  by  special  directions  in  the  succeeding 
paragraphs. 
(2)  Assay  Processes  for  Drugs. — It  is  recommended  that  assay  processes  be 
appended  to  the  descriptions  of  the  more  energetic  or  otherwise  important 
drugs  containing  active  principles,  provided  the  therapeutic  value  of  the  drug 
depends  upon  the  amount  of  these  principles,  and  provided,  also,  that  these 
principles  can  be  assayed  and  identified  with  reasonable  accuracy  and  without 
requiring  complicated  processes.  The  Committee  may  attach  a  note  stating 
the  usual  percentage  of  these  active  principles  in  good  commercial  samples  of 
the  drug,  and,  if  it  be  found  feasible,  it  may  attach  a  requirement  that  the  drug 
shall  not  be  used  unless  it  conforms  to  these  limits. 
(3)  Assay  Processes  for  Galenical  Preparations. — The  Committee  may  attach 
assay  processes  to  such  galenical  preparations  as  fluid  extracts,  tinctures,  etc., 
but  it  shall  omit  requirements  of  a  definitive  strength  or  percentage  of  active 
principles  except  in  the  case  of  drugs  for  which  an  upper  or  lower  limit,  or 
both,  of  active  principles  is  prescribed.  ♦ 
(4)  Assay  Processes  for  Opium  and  Cinchona. — In  the  case  of  opium  and 
cinchona  the  Committee  shall  adopt  such  processes  of  assay  as  will  be  found  to 
yield  the  largest  proportion  of  the  desired  active  principles  with  greatest  uni- 
formity and  with  least  manipulative  difficulty,  the  object  of  these  processes 
being  to  ascertain  how  much  of  the  respective  principles  can  practically  be 
extracted. 
(5)  Description  of  Chemicals  and  Tests. — In  the  case  of  chemicals,  the 
degree  of  purity,  or  the  allowable  percentage  of  impurity,  shall  be  prescribed 
as  closely  as  practicable.  The  standard  of  purity  shall  be  set  as  high  as  prac- 
ticable for  legal  enforcement,  but  not  beyond  a  point  reasonably  attainable  by 
the  manufacturer  without  subjecting  any  particular  product  to  unnecessary 
cost  through  the  enforced  removal  of  some  harmless  and  insignificant  acci- 
dental impurity. 
(6)  Chemical  Formulas. — Chemical  formulas  shall  be  given  only  in  the  new 
notation. 
(7)  Proprietary  or  Patented  Articles. — No  substance  which  cannot  be  pro- 
duced otherwise  than  under  patented  processes,  or  which  is  protected  by 
proprietary  rights,  shall  be  introduced  into  the  Pharmacopoeia. 
(8)  Nomenclature. — In  the  choice  of  titles  of  official  articles  it  is  recom- 
mended that  convenience,  established  custom,  and  considerations  of  safety 
against  mistakes,  through  similarity  of  or  changes  in  names,  should  outweigh 
purely  theoretical  considerations  or  scientific  preciseness. 
(9)  Specific  Gravity. — It  is  recommended  that  the  Committee  define  the 
exact  degree  of  temperature  of  the  standard  by  which  other  specific  gravities 
are  to  be  determined,  and  the  specific  gravities  of  the  various  officinal  liquids 
shall  be  determined  and  stated  by  the  Committee,  so  far  as  it  may  be  practic- 
able, on  the  basis  of  the  established  temperature  and  other  conditions  of  the 
standard. 
