132 
Progress  in  Pharmacy. 
f Am.  Jour.  Pharm» 
\      March,  1906. 
compounds  has  actually  resulted  in  a  marked  increase  in  the  use  of 
these  preparations  by  physicians  during  the  past  year. 
The  results  of  the  canvass  made  by  the  Ametican  Druggist  may  be 
misleading,  however,  in  that  the  conclusions  were  arrived  at  prema- 
turely. At  all  events,  it  will  be  safe  to  withhold  our  final  decision 
until  after  the  present  efforts  have  been  given  a  reasonable  time  in 
which  to  demonstrate  their  efficiency  or  lack  of  efficiency. 
Popularizing  the  Pharmacopoeia  with  Physicians. — It  has  been  repeat- 
edly asserted  that  much  of  the  present-day  popularity  of  proprietary^ 
medicines  is  directly  due  to  the  fact  that  physicians  have  little  or  no 
knowledge  of  the  Pharmacopoeia  and  its  contents,  and  that  no  con- 
sistent attempt  has  ever  been  made  to  bring  the  various  drugs  and 
preparations  of  the  Pharmacopoeia  prominently  before  the  medical 
practitioners  of  the  country. 
This  shortcoming  is  being  guarded  against,  in  a  measure,  at  the 
present  time,  and  a  number  of  ways  and  means  of  popularizing  the 
recent  revision  of  the  Pharmacopoeia  are  being  tried.  Not  the  least 
pretentious  of  these  is  the  plan  that  has  been  adopted  by  the  Jour- 
nal of  the  American  Medical  Association  in  its  current  numbers. 
This  journal  is  now  printing  a  series  of  special  articles  designated! 
"  The  Physician  and  the  Pharmacopoeia  "  that  are  designed  to 
arouse  the  interest  of  medical  practitioners  in  the  various  uses  of  the 
several  official  substances  and  preparations  and  incidentally  at  least 
to  point  out  the  advisability  of  adhering  more  closely  to  pharmaco- 
pceial  preparations. 
Pharmacists,  if  they  were  so  inclined,  could  readily  take  advantage 
of  this  series  of  articles,  and  by  bringing  them  more  directly  to  the 
attention  of  physicians  in  their  immediate  neighborhood,  or  by- 
demonstrating  the  elegance  or  desirability  of  pharmacopoeia!  or 
N.F.  preparations,  would  probably  be  able  to  convince  a  number  of 
physicians  that  there  is  in  reality  absolutely  no  need  for  the  present 
widespread  use  of  proprietary  remedies,  particularly  simple  mix- 
tures. 
Another  very  promising  plan  for  popularizing  official  preparations 
is  that  adopted  by  the  druggists  of  Dallas,  Tex.,  who,  under  the 
very  able  leadership  of  Prof.  E.  G.  Eberle,  have  induced  local  physi- 
cians to  meet  and  listen  to  descriptions  or  talks  on  the  new  Pharma- 
copoeia and  its  contents.  There  are  so  many  reasons  to  advance  in 
favor  of  a  more  strict  adherence  to  well-known  or  widely  used  reme- 
