A^ugusrt,i906rm'}    Pennsylvania  Pharmaceutical  Association.  375 
maceutical  and  medical  journals  during  the  past  year,  no  attempt 
has  been  made  by  the  chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Revision  to 
make  answers  except  in  the  few  instances  when  he  happened  to  be 
present  at  a  meeting  where  the  subject  came  up.  It  is  interesting 
to  observe  that  the  questions  which  occasioned  the  most  discussion 
in  the  Committee  of  Revision  have  been  criticised  the  least  up  to 
the  present  time  with  the  possible  exception  of  the  dose  question. 
It  is  natural  to  expect  that  there  should  be  criticism,  and  it  indicates 
the  widespread  interest  in  the  work  itself.  The  subject  of  the 
adulterations  in  medicine  and  food,  which  has  become  so  important 
to  the  laity  recently,  has  been  responsible  for  the  close  scrutiny 
given  to  standards  such  as  are  set  forth  in  the  Pharmacopoeia.  The 
function  of  the  Pharmacopoeia  is  not  to  lead  in  the  matter  of  intro- 
ducing new  remedies,  but  to  control,  to  select,  and  to  devise  stand- 
ards, and  to  give  its  stamp  of  authority  to  preparations  in  general 
use  by  improving  them  and  securing  uniformity  and  strength.  The 
criticism  that  it  has  become  a  book  of  standards  is  a  just  one  ;  that 
is  its  primary  function.  It  is  certainly  to  be  considered  a  manufac- 
turer's hand-book  because  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  pharmacist  of 
to-day  sells  more  products  manufactured  by  others,  than  he  does 
preparations  made  by  himself;  and  it  is  a  pharmacist's  guide,  because, 
by  its  use,  the  pharmacist  is  enabled  to  keep  the  manufacturer's 
goods  up  to  the  standard.  It  must  be  recognized  that  the  number 
of  preparations  which  can  be  more  economically  manufactured  on  a 
large  scale,  is  continually  growing,  and  it  would  be  a  suicidal  policy 
for  the  pharmacist  of  the  present  time  to  make  many  of  the  prepara- 
tions which  were  made  by  the  pharmacist  of  twenty-five  or  thirty 
years  ago.  The  policy  of  the  present  Pharmacopoeia  has  been  to 
encourage  the  manufacture  of  every  preparation  that  could  possibly 
be  made  by  the  retail  druggist.  Many  valuable  suggestions  were 
contributed  by  representatives  of  the  manufacturing  interests,  and 
elaborate  experiments  were  made  by  individual  members  of  the 
committee  with  the  sole  object  of  encouraging  the  pharmacist  to 
make  many  preparations  for  himself.  The  making  of  one's  own 
preparations  would  not  only  increase  the  standard,  increase  the 
actual  practical  knowledge  of  the  sciences,  elevate  the  pharmacist 
above  the  mediocre  ability  of  the  tradesman,  and  educate  the 
assistants  that  he  employs,  but  would,  above  all,  increase  the  respect 
of  the  physician  who  depends  upon  him  for  accurate  and  safe  phar- 
