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Official  Pharmacy. 
( Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
I       July,  1886. 
OFFICIAL  PHARMACY. 
By  R.  Eother. 
When  individual  experiences  find  agreement  at  large  the  corre- 
spondent beliefs  arising  from  this  consensus  of  practice  finally  assume 
an  authoritative  form,  Whilst,  in  the  beginning,  dissent,  if  merely 
passive  is  at  least  respected,  the  rule  of  custom  at  last  generate?  a 
public  opinion  whose  stringency  exacts  a  rigid  conformity.  If,  how- 
ever, these  demands  eventually  prove  onerous  under  new  conditions, 
or,  if  their  fallacy  becomes  pronounced,  a  decided  and  powerful 
reaction  does  not  fail  to  modify,  if  not  wholly  disregard,  them.  In 
aggregates  not  altogether  despotically  regulated,  a  unanimity  of  public 
assent  is  essential  to  coercion,  as  without  its  sanction  legislative  enact- 
ments can  attain  no  permanent  force.  The  unwritten  law  is,  in  the 
last  resort,  the  one  source  from  which  all  others  emanate.  Ignoring 
the  voluminous  and  questionable  body  of  laws  having  their  origin  in 
a  sophistical  legal  system,  there  is  yet  remaining  a  sound  codified 
legal  nucleus  at  the  base  of  social  activity.  Upon  this  fundament  rest 
the  various  semi-legal  codified  authorities,  designed  to  regulate  the 
diverse  ramifications  of  the  industrial  system  of  society. 
After  undergoing  a  variety  of  transformations,  conventional  methods 
finally  attain  the  attributes  of  custom,  if  not  the  more  definite  authority 
of  technical  law.  This  would  indicate  that  the  practice  of  appropriate 
action  in  becoming  organized  and  organic,  persists  independent  of  ex- 
traneous reinforcement,  and  thus  precludes  the  supervision  of  authority. 
This  would  be  true  in  a  perfectly  homogeneous  system,  but  not  in 
systems  having  components  of  all  orders  and  degrees  of  correspond- 
ence. Furthermore,  the  most  accomplished  individuals  are  in  no  less 
need  of  an  exemplary  guide  than  the  least  accordant  are  of  a  coercive 
regimen.  Thus,  whilst  the  better  adapted  have  a  thorough  compre- 
hension of  the  exigencies  at  large  and  their  own  concordance  with 
them,  the  general  intricacy  of  the  interactions  renders  an  authorized 
guide  most  serviceable,  even  to  them.  Then,  as  regards  the  greater 
portion  who  are  more  or  less  deficient  in  these  respects,  the  interven- 
tion of  a  technical  authority  becomes  indispensable. 
The  Pharmacopoeia  is  a  semi-legal  code  whose  authority  is,  however, 
at  present  chiefly  based  upon  a  generalized  conventionality,  rather 
than  upon  a  prevalent  custom,  public  opinion,  or  legal  form.  It  thus 
shows  itself  to  be  in  the  incipient  stage  of  progress.    Under  such 
