20  Tinctures  of  Potent  Remedies.  {^i^fSE?*' 
Among  the  views  of  the  pharmaceutical  press  it  may  be  permis- 
sible to  quote  an  extract  from  the  Schiveizerische  Wochenschrift,  1902, 
page  510,  in  which  the  editor  says:  "The  twentieth  of  September, 
the  day  on  which  the  agreement  was  signed,  will  be  a  memorable 
one  in  the  annals  of  pharmacy — it  marks  the  advent  of  a  new  era, 
the  attainment  of  attempts  covering  nearly  fifty  years." 
As  stated  above,  the  comments  on  the  action  of  this  International 
Conference  have  been  uniformly  favorable ;  in  our  own  country, 
however,  there  appears  to  be  a  lack  of  appreciation  for  the  import- 
ance of  this  particular  move,  and  unless  we  are  to  be  again  accused 
of  being  backward  and  ultraconservative,  it  will  be  necessary  for 
the  American  pharmacist  to  indicate  in  a  decisive  and  positive  way 
his  appreciation  of  the  necessity  of  adopting  the  recommendations 
of  the  Brussels  Conference,  in  a  general  way,  it  not  wholly  and 
according  to  the  exact  letter  of  the  agreement.  Let  the  watchword 
be  to  "  follow  the  spirit  of  the  recommendations,"  even  if  it  does 
not  appear  feasible  to  accept  the  exact  wording  of  the  protocol. 
REFERENCES  EOR  HISTORY  OR  COMMENT. 
(1)  American  Journal  of  Pharmacy,  19CH,  p.  315  et  seq. 
(2)  Proceedings  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association,  1893,  p.  56. 
(3)  Proceedings  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association,  1898,  p.  103. 
(4)  Schweizerische  Wochenschrift  fur  Chemie  und  Pharmacie,  1902,  pp.  405, 
449  and  497. 
(5)  Journal  de  Pharmacie  et  de  Chimie,  1902,  p.  353. 
(6)  fournal  de  Pharmacie  de  la  Societe  de  Pharmacie  d'Anvers,  1902,  p.  380. 
(7)  Pharmaceutische  Post,  Vienna,  1902,  p.  629. 
(8)  Pharmaceutische  Zeitung,  Berlin,  1902,  p.  832. 
THE  PROPOSED  INTERNATIONAL  STANDARD 
TINCTURES  OF  POTENT  REMEDIES. 
By  M.  I.  Wii^BERT, 
Apothecary  at  the  German  Hospital,  Philadelphia. 
The  menstruum  that  is  to  be  used  for  making  the  proposed  inter- 
national standard  tinctures  is,  in  many  cases,  so  different  from  that 
directed  in  the  U.S.P.  for  similar  preparations,  that  it  was  thought 
desirable  to  make  a  number  of  experiments  to  see  what,  if  any, 
advantage  might  be  derived  from  following  implicitly  the  directions 
of  the  Brussels  Conference. 
It  is  well  known  that  the  tendency,  in  this  country  at  least,  has 
