THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY 
lULYy  1906.     <  » 
COMMENTS  UPON  THE  U.S.P.  INORGANIC  CHEMICALS.. 
By  Virgin  Cobi^entz. 
Before  taking  up  the  work  of  revision,  the  first  duty  that  con- 
fronted our  Committee  was  the  selection  of  the  standard  for  atomic 
weights.  At  that  time  (Summer  of  1900)  there  was  little  choice,  since 
the  standard  of  O  =  16  had  been  but  recently  proposed  for  general 
adoption  among  chemists,  and  the  system  of  H  =  I  had  always 
been  employed  in  previous  pharmacopceial  revisions.  Owing  to 
the  fact  that  the  majority  of  chemists,  especially  teachers,  favored 
the  old  standard,  and  since  it  was  impossible  for  us  to  delay  our 
work  until  this  matter  was  settled,  the  more  conservative  plan  was 
adopted  in  retaining  H  =  I.  After  having  once  entered  fully  into 
the  task  of  revision  any  change  was  out  of  £Re^  r>estion.  Chemists 
will  continue  to  wrangle  over  this  subject  m  ^future  as  in  the 
past,  possibly  by  1 910  an  agreement  may  !  i  -ached  in  accepting 
the  0  =  16  standard  which  gives  us  figure  more  convenient  for 
practical  purposes. 
During  the  last  decade,  many  marked  c  laiiges  in  manufacturing 
processes  for  the  production  of  various  chemicals  have  been  made ; 
this  is  particularly  the  case  with  the  alkalies,  alkaline  earths  and 
acids.  Most  of  these  changes  are  due  to  the  introduction  of  electro, 
lytic  processes  which  invariably  furnish  purer  products,  justifying 
therefore  a  raising  of  the  standards  of  purity  of  all  chemicals  derived 
directly  or  indirectly  from  such. 
Many  of  the  general  tests  of  the  old  pharmacopoeia  were  unne- 
cessarily sensitive,  while  others  lacked  in  uniformity  of  description 
and  application.  Further,  the  requirements  for  the  absence  of 
certain  innocuous  impurities  imposed  unnecessary  hardships  upon 
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