214 
Benjamin  Franklin. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
May,  1906. 
States  Pharmacopoeia  is  the  best  that  has  yet  appeared,  and  that  it 
is  by  all  odds  the  best  in  the  English  language.  There  are  a  little 
more  than  100  pages  of  most  valuable  matter  that  I  have  not  yet 
been  able  to  more  than  glance  at.  These  are  the  tests,  reagents, 
test  solutions,  volumetric  solutions,  directions  for  gasometric  esti- 
mations and  for  alkaloidal  assay,  etc.,  followed  by  a  number  of  tables 
of  very  great  practical  value  in  the  laboratory,  saving  much  time 
and  calculation,  and  useful  for  many  purposes.  Too  often  this  part 
of  the  Pharmacopoeia  is  ignored,  not,  however,  by  scientific  phar- 
macists. 
I  note  with  regret  one  omission,  namely,  the  mention  of  the 
pharmacopoeial  preparations.  It  is  a  convenience  to  students  to 
know  what  preparations  are  made  from  each  drug,  and  if  the  Phar- 
macopoeia is  to  be  popular  among  physicians,  as  is  most  greatly  to 
be  desired,  it  would  be  acceptable  to  them  to  see  at  a  glance  what 
form  of  a  remedy  is  official,  that  they  might  prescribe  it  accordingly. 
However,  the  general  excellence  of  the  work  is  such,  and  the  diffi- 
culties of  doing  what  has  been  done  were  so  great,  that,  I  think, 
words  of  commendation  rather  than  of  fault-finding  should  be  given 
to  the  Committee  of  Revision,  for  they  surely  have  done  a  great 
work,. 
BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 
HIS  INFLUENCE  ON  THE  PROGRESS  OF  THE  SCIENCE  OF  MEDICINE  IN 
AMERICA. 
BY  M.  I.  Wl I/BERT, 
Apothecary  at  the  German  Hospital,  Philadelphia. 
In  looking  back  over  the  200  years  that  have  elapsed  since  the 
birth  of  Benjamin  Franklin  we  must,  of  necessity,  be  impressed  by 
the  ever  reappearing  evidence  that  this  printer  philosopher  of  Phil- 
adelphia has  left  the  impress  of  his  theories  and  of  his  accomplish- 
ments on  practically  every  phase  of  our  present-day  existence. 
The  long  and  eventful  career  of  this  early  American  scientist, 
extending  from  January  17,  1 706,  to  April  17,  1790,  a  period  of  84 
years,  appears  like  one  continuous  recitation  of  important  occur- 
rences. Even  his  humble  beginning  as  an  apprentice,  in  the  printing 
office  of  his  brother,  in  Boston,  was  not  devoid  of  influence  on  the 
course  of  events  in  the  Massachusetts  colony. 
