356     Eighth  Decennial  Revision  of  Pharmacopoeia.  {AmAa|oItu9^m* 
him  to  become  familiar  .  with  the  names  of  the  different  official 
preparations  in  which  the  several  articles  were  used  as  component 
parts. 
As  noted  above,  the  Committee  on  Revision  does  not  appear  to 
have  taken  cognizance  of  the  absence  of  this  particular  feature,  and 
as  no  direct  mention  is  made  concerning  them,  in  the  instructions 
given  the  committee  by  the  National  Convention,  it  is  just  possible 
that  they  have  been  inadvertently  overlooked. 
Scope  of  the  Pharmacopoeia. — To  men  who  are  actively  engaged  in 
following  up  the  advances  and  the  needs  of  the  science  of  medicine, 
it  is  becoming  more  and  more  evident  that  a  pharmacopoeia,  to  be 
acceptable  and  satisfactory  to  the  community  for  which  it  is  de- 
signed, must,  in  addition  to  a  proper  consideration  of  the  articles 
that  are  more  or  less  distinctive  of  local  conditions,  take  cognizance 
of  the  tendency  to  recognize  international  standards  for  such  drugs 
and  preparations  as  are  known  and  used  in  a  greater  number  of  the 
civilized  countries  of  the  world. 
That  the  national  convention  of  1900  was  imbued  with  a  realiza- 
tion of  this  particular  necessity  is  evidenced  by  the  tone  and  the 
character  of  the  instructions  embodied  in  the  "  General  Principles  to 
be  Followed  in  Revising  the  Pharmacopoeia."  That  a  majority,  at 
least  of  the  members  of  the  Committee  on  Revision,  have  not  been 
awakened  to,  or  at  least  have  not  been  sufficiently  impressed  by, 
this  evident  necessity  for  international  standards  for  the  more  widely 
used  drugs  and  preparations,  is  evidenced  by  the  rather  indifferent 
way  in  which  many  of  the  clear  and  definite  instructions  to  the  Com- 
mittee on  Revision  have  been  carried  out.  One  of  the  shortcom- 
ings in  this  direction,  but  by  far  not  the  greatest,  is  to  be  found  in 
the  committee's  attempt  to  solve  the  admittedly  intricate  problem 
connected  with  the  admission  of  "  synthetized  products  of  definite 
composition." 
With  the  rapid  dissemination  of  scientific  facts  that  is  possible 
at  the  present  time,  there  is  an  ever-decreasing  necessity  for  giving 
any  particular  heed  to  purely  local  demands  for  official  recognition 
of  any  particular  substance  or  preparation.  When,  on  the  other 
hand,  widely-known  and  widely-used  preparations  are  recognized, 
some  attention  should  be  directed  to  the  requirements,  uses,  names 
and  limitations  of  these  same  preparations  in  other  countries. 
The  recognition  of  the  so-called  synthetic  chemicals,  constituted 
