326  Fifth  Revision  German  Pharmacopoeia.  {'^'"■jiHv'i.iu'""'* 
THE  FIFTH  REVISION  OF  THE  GERMAN  PHARMA- 
COFCEIA/ 
By  George  M.  Beringer. 
The  appearance  of  a  new  edition  of  the  German  Fhannacopoeia 
is  always  an  important  event  in  the  history  of  pharmacy.  The  fifth 
revision  of  the  Deutsches  Arzneihnch  has  been  pubhshed  (Un-ing  the 
past  year  and  became  effective  and  the  anthority  in  the  German 
Empire  on  January  i,  191 1.  Its  pubHcation  on  the  eve  of  the  Ninth 
Revision  of  the  United  States  Pharmacopoeia,  adds  materially  to  its 
importance. 
Owing  to  the  great  number  of  our  inhabitants  who  are  of  Ger- 
man birth  or  descent  and  alsO'  to  the  numerous  American  physicians 
who  have  been  students  in  the  German  medical  schools,  the  practice 
of  medicine  and  pharmacy  in  this  country,  in  many  matters,  largely 
follows  the  German. 
The  present  revision  marks  the  progress  of  professional  phar- 
macy in  Germany  since  1900,  when  the  fourth  revision  was  pub- 
lished. Many  of  its  departures  are  meritorious  advances  and  will 
have  marked  influence  on  other  pharmacopoeial  revisions,  and  its 
pronouncements  are  worthy  of  our  careful  study.  I  have  no  doubt 
that  they  foreshadow  some  of  the  principles  and  standards  that  will 
be  adopted  in  the  revision  of  the  U.S. P.  On  the  other  hand,  one 
is  impressed  by  the  fact  that  the  U.S. P.,  8th  revision,  was  undoubt- 
edly the  model  for  some  of  the  noteworthy  changes  in  the  latest 
German  revision. 
The  object  of  the  present  communication  is  to  direct  attention 
to  the  more  important  features  of  the  revision  as  the  limitation  of 
our  meeting  necessarily  precludes  a  detailed  review  of  the  book. 
As  in  the  previous  revisions  it  follows  the  custom  of  stating 
formulas,  when  not  dosage  forms,  in  parts  by  weight,  even  in  the 
formulas  for  fluid  extracts,  and  the  finished  products  are  given  as 
4,  5,  9,  10,  20,  50,  100  or  500,  etc.,  parts.  The  uniformity  of  the 
U.S. P.  in  this  respect  is  lacking  in  the  German. 
One  of  the  noted  departures  in  this  revision  is  the  style  of  giving 
formulas.  The  U.S. P.  method  of  stating  all  the  ingredients  and 
quantities  in  the  beginning  of  the  formula  and  then  following  with 
^  Read  before  the  New  Jersey  Pharmaceutical  Association  at  Asbury 
Park,  N.  J.,  June  14,  191 1. 
