Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  ) 
December,  1911.  j 
Progress  in  Pharmacy. 
571 
quotes  extensively  from  the  report  of  a  recent  investigation  into 
the  manner  and  accuracy  of  dispensing  by  New  York  City  pharma- 
cists, and  points  out  that  this  report  places  a  number  of  pharmacists 
in  a  very  unpleasant  light. — American  Medicine,  191 1,  v.  17,  pp. 
541-543. 
Digest  of  Comments. — A  book  review^  commenting  on  the  uses 
of  the  Digest  of  Comments  on  the  Pharmacopoeia  and  the  National 
Formulary  points  out  that  these  bulletins  serve  to  indicate  the  nature 
and  the  kind  of  remedies  that  are  being  used  and  actively  discussed 
by  physicians  in  different  parts  of  the  world.  Not  the  least  inter- 
esting of  the  truths  that  have  been  evidenced  m  this  connection  is 
the  fact  that  the  really  active  and  efficient  drugs  are  universally 
used  by  all  classes  of  practitioners.  It  is  also  evident  that  the  litera- 
ture relating  to  the  use  of  many  of  the  less  well  established  drugs 
is  based  on  observations  that  are  so  unreliable  or  at  least  ques- 
tionable that  the  mockery  of  their  continuance  as  official  articles 
must  be  apparent  to  every  well  trained  medical  man. — /.  Am.  M. 
Ass.,  1910,  v.  57,  p.  1398. 
Comparative  Purity  of  Medicaments. — Puckner  and  War- 
ren, in  reporting  their  examination  of  calcium  phenolsulphonate, 
point  out  that  the  results  of  the  examination  of  this  substance  fur- 
ther illustrate  what  other  examinations  in  the  Chemical  Laboratory 
of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association  have  so  often  shown, 
and  that  is  that  commercial  products  which  are  but  little  used  and 
for  which  there  are  no  authoritative  standards  for  strength  and 
purity  are  also  invariably  unreliable  in  composition. — /.  Am.  M. 
Ass.,  1911,  V.  57,  p.  1384. 
British  Pharmacopceia. — The  Committee  of  Reference  in 
Pharmacy  has  issued  a  further  report  containing  suggestions  for  the 
revision  of  the  British  Pharmacopoeia.  This  report  is  abstracted 
in  the  Chemist  and  Druggist  (August  26,  1911,  v.  79,  pp.  354-358) 
and  also  commented  editorially  (Ibid.,  pp.  351-352).  The  present 
installment  includes  many,  if  not  all,  of  the  changes  that  are  in- 
volved in  an  attempt  at  compliance  with  the  provisions  of  the  Brus- 
sels Protocol,  and  it  is  gratifying  to  learn  that  with  a  limited  num- 
ber of  minor  exceptions  and  the  recognized  reservation  that  liquid 
preparations  are  to  represent  weight  volume  per  cent.,  there  is  a  gen- 
eral tendency  to  conform  strictly  with  the  requirements  of  the 
International  Treaty. 
The  editor,  in  commenting  on  the  revision  of  the  Ph.  Brit., 
