EDITORIAL.  879 
Filbert  street  above  7th,  and  as  our  readers  will  notice  in  the  call  of  the 
President  at  page  378,  it  will  occur  at  3  o'clock,  on  the  afternoon  of 
Wednesday  the  27th  of  August. 
This  location  is  central  and  convenient  to  the  principal  hotels,  being 
about  three  squares  from  the  Continental,  9th  and  Chestnut  streets.  All 
persons  intending  to  become  members  by  the  action  of  the  Association  at 
its  first  meeting,  are  each  requested  to  make  application  to  the  Chairman 
of  the  Executive  Committee,  (W.  Procter,  Jr.,  as  above,)  and  get  a  copy  of 
the  Constitution  with  accompanying  blanks  for  signature,  either  before 
hand  or  when  they  arrive  in  Philadelphia.  We  are  authorized  to  say  that 
arrangements  will  be  made  for  the  exhibition  of  specimens  at  the  meeting, 
and  all  persons  intending  to  forward  specimens  should  direct  their 
packages  (freight  paid)  to  the  Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy,  care  of 
Edward  Parrish,  800  Arch  Street,  Philadelphia. 
Report  of  the  Revising  Committee  on  the  British  Pharmacopeia.  — 
This  Committee  were  appointed  by  the  "  General  Medical  Council,"  a 
body  holding  their  authority  directly  from  Parliament.  This  Committee 
commenced  their  labors  in  November,  1858,  and  made  a  partial  report, 
which  was  published  at  page  430,  vol.  xxxii.,  (1860)  of  this  Journal.  They 
now  announce  the  completion  of  their  labors  so  far  that  the  manuscript 
copy  of  the  British  Pharmacopoeia  is  ready  for  the  printer.  The  work  con- 
tains 322  articles  of  the  materia  medica  list,  380  processes,  galenical  and 
chemical,  and  49  substances  in  an  appended  list.  To  give  an  idea  of  the 
labor  expended  in  producing  this  work,  the  report  says :  "  The  London 
sub-committee  met  149  times ;  that  of  Edinburgh  105  times ;  that  of 
Dublin  131  times  ;  and  the  general  conferences  of  the  three  committees 
held  in  London  and  Edinburgh  met  ten  times,  whilst  a  sub-committee  on 
the  chemistry  of  the  work  met  in  Dublin  eighteen  times.  The  weights 
adopted  for  the  work  are  the  avoirdupois,  pound  and  ounce ;  the  latter  di- 
vided precisely  as  the  troy  ounce  into  8  drachms,  24  scruples,  and  480  grains, 
which  reduces  the  grain  about  1-llth  in  value.  The  British  Pharma- 
ceutists may  well  rejoice  in  being  relieved  by  this  change  from  the  oner- 
ous task  of  unceasingly  bearing  in  mind  that  the  weights  they  employ  in 
buying  and  selling  are  not  those  they  must  use  in  compounding  medicines  ; 
and  this  change  is  to  be  brought  about  without  the  alteration  of  a  single 
term  in  their  metrological  nomenclature.  We  have  always  been  favorable 
to  the  adoption  of  this  system  in  the  U.  S.  Pharmacopoeia,  on  the  ground 
both  of  its  expediency  and  real  merit,  as  a  measure  giving  uniformity  of 
action  among  apothecaries,  many  of  whom  pay  no  regard  to  the  use  of 
troy  weights  in  compounding  quantities  greater  than  half  an  ounce,  be- 
cause they  have  only  avoirdupois  weights. 
The  delay  which  now  prevents  the  publication  of  the  work  has  refer 
ence  to  the  copyright,  which  required  the  action  of  the  general  council 
