Am.  .Jour.  Pharm. ) 
January,  1903.  J 
International  Standards. 
*5 
standing,  it  was  proposed  to  ask  the  Belgian  Government  to  invite 
other  governments  to  send  delegates  to  a  proposed  conference  in 
Brussels,  these  delegates  to  discuss  and,  if  possible,  to  agree  on 
a  system  of  uniform  standards  for  the  more  potent  remedies.  The 
report  was  accepted,  and  the  resolutions  embodying  the  request  for- 
warded to  the  proper  authorities  of  the  Belgian  Government. 
The  Belgian  Government,  acting  on  the  recommendation  of  this 
Ninth  International  Congress,  sent  invitations  to  the  governments 
most  interested,  and  in  return  received  uniformly  favorable  replies, 
accepting  the  invitation  to  send  official  delegates  to  an  international 
conference. 
This  conference  assembled  at  Brussels,  September  15,  1902,  and 
was  composed  of  official  representatives  of  eighteen  different  coun- 
tries. The  proceedings  have  been  referred  to  quite  extensively  in 
the  various  pharmaceutical  journals,  so  that  it  will  not  be  necessary 
to  recapitulate  them  here. 
The  final  agreement  has  been  commented  on  quite  favorably  by 
the  pharmaceutical  journals  of  England,  Germany,  France,  Austria, 
Switzerland  and  Belgium.  As  these  are  the  countries  where  the 
most  progressive  work  in  the  medical  line  is  being  done,  it  would 
appear  as  though  this  late  conference  were  destined  to  leave  some 
tangible  results  as  a  direct  outcome  of  its  deliberations. 
That  these  recommendations  are  not  above  possible  criticism  must 
be  admitted.  That  some  of  them  will  not  meet  with  general 
approval  is  to  be  feared.  How  far  and  how  they  should  be  recog- 
nized in  this  country  is  the  subject  that  should  interest  us  greatly 
at  the  present  time.  With  the  eighth  decennial  revision  of  the 
United  States  Pharmacopoeia  probably  in  press,  suggested  changes 
at  the  eleventh  hour  must  have  more  than  the  idle  fancy  or  whim 
of  an  individual  to  give  them  weight  or  importance. 
Let  us  inquire  first  as  to  the  authority  of  the  Pharmacopoeial 
Revision  Committee  to  recognize  recommendations  of  this  kind.  The 
answer  is  definitely  and  positively  stated  in  the  list  of  instructions 
given  the  committee  by  the  Pharmacopoeial  Revision  Convention. 
Under  the  heading  "  Purity  and  Strength  of  Pharmacopoeial  Arti- 
cles," we  find  the  following:  "Regarding  the  strength  of  diluted 
acids,  tinctures  and  galenical  preparations  in  general,  it  is  recom- 
mended that  the  conwnittee  keep  in  view  the  desirability  of  at  least 
a  gradual  approach,  upon  mutual  concessions,  towards  uniformity 
