376 
Pharmacy  of  Useful  Drugs. 
(  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
\     August,  p.915. 
As  noted  above,  the  list  is  intended  to  include  only  such  drugs  and 
preparations  as  are  in  general  use  or  are  accepted  as  having  well- 
established  medicinal  value  or  demonstrated  superiority.  The  list  at 
the  present  time  includes  practically  all  of  the  preparations  of  the 
Pharmacopoeia  of  the  United  States  for  which  standards  and  assay 
processes  are  included,  and  also  includes  practically  all  of  the  widely- 
used  household  remedies  that  are  frequently  examined  and  reported 
on  by  officials  entrusted  with  the  enforcement  of  food  and  drug  laws, 
and  for  these  reasons  alone  pharmacists  would  do  well  to  consider 
the  practicability  of  devoting  additional  attention  to  the  systematic 
examination  and  control  of  the  several  articles. 
With  the  impending  revision  of  the  Pharmacopoeia  and  of  the 
National  Formulary,  the  Council  is  about  to  revise  the  list,  and 
teachers  in  medical  schools,  members  of  state  medical  examining 
and  licensing  boards,  and  others  are  being  consulted  at  the  present 
time  in  regard  to  the  practicability  or  desirability  of  omitting  from 
and  adding  to  the  list  of  useful  drugs. 
In  this  connection  it  should  be  remembered  that  the  members 
of  the  Council  fully  realize  that,  individually  or  as  a  body,  they  are 
neither  omniscient  nor  infallible.  From  its  very  origin  the  Council 
has  courted  the  cooperation  and  assistance  of  not  alone  medical  men, 
but  also  of  pharmacists. 
In  the  revision  of  the  list  under  discussion  it  is  particularly  im- 
portant that  pharmacists  should  be  given  an  opportunity  to  record 
their  criticisms  and  opinions  of  the  list  and  its  objects  and  to  suggest 
ways  and  means  for  inducing  pharmacists  generally  to  prepare  and  to 
dispense  the  preparations  included  in  the  list  in  accord  with  official 
requirements. 
As  has  been  pointed  out  before,  we,  in  this  country,  are  sadly  in 
need  of  more  energetic  and  more  effective  control  of  all  drugs  and 
medicines.  The  only  really  safe  and  efficient  control  involves  honesty, 
knowledge,  intelligence,  and  care  on  the  part  of  the  person  dispensing 
the  medicine  to  the  consumer,  so  that,  unless  pharmacists  as  a  class 
can  be  induced  to  devote  special  attention  to  the  systematic  examina- 
tion and  control  of  drugs  and  preparations  widely  used  in  the  treat- 
ment of  disease,  the  manufacturers  of  specialties  or  proprietaries  will 
continue  to  have  a  reasonable  argument  with  which  to  approach  the 
physician.  In  conclusion  it  may  be  stated  that  pharmacists  as  a  class 
may  well  endeavor  to  secure  for  themselves  and  for  their  craft  the 
recognition  and  respect  that  is  properly  their  due  for  services  .ren- 
