0 
358     Eighth  Decennial  Revision  of  Pharmacopoeia.  {ADiuU£,  wo"™" 
closely.  They  have,  as  the  result  of  their  labors,  presented  us  with 
a  list  of  "  average  approximate  doses,  in  the  metric  system,"  that 
will  do  almost  anything  but  popularize  the  metric  system  of  weights 
and  measures  with  the  majority  of  physicians  and  pharmacists  of 
the  United  States. 
In  this  connection  it  would  be  interesting,  indeed,  to  discover  by 
what  manner  of  reasoning  the  members  of  the  Committee  on  Revis- 
ion were  enabled  to  come  to  the  conclusion  that  o  065  of  opium 
more  nearly  represented  an  average  dose  than  0-050 ;  or  how  and 
why  0-125  of  a  given  drug  should  be  considered  approximately 
nearer  to  an  average  dose  than  o*ioo  of  the  same  substance.  To 
any  reasonable  individual  it  would  certainly  appear  that  if  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Committee  on  Revision  had  given  the  average  dose  of 
pharmacopceial  articles  in  full,  round  decimal  quantities,  in  place  of 
stating,  as  they  practically  do,  the  exact  metric  equivalents  of  the 
average  dose  in  the  ordinary  weights  or  measures,  they  would  have, 
more  nearly  at  least,  complied  with  the  spirit  as  well  as  the  letter  of 
their  instructions.  The  members  of  the  Committee  on  Revision 
have  seen  fit  to  go  even  further.  In  addition  to  the  ludicrous  figures 
that  they  have  given  us  as  representing  the  average  doses  of  drugs 
in  metric  quantities,  they  have  also  included,  in  the  introductory 
notices  to  the  book,  a  table  of  approximate  measures  that  in  addi- 
tion to  being  manifestly  incorrect,  is  not  in  keeping  with  any  attempt 
to  popularize  or  to  increase  the  use  of  the  metric  system  of  weights 
and  measures.  Here  it  may  be  added  that  with  the  single  excep- 
tion of  "The  Pharmacopoeia  of  the  New  York  Hospital,"  published 
in  1 8 16,  no  other  representative  American  pharmacopoeia  has  ever 
taken  cognizance  of  approximate  measures;  and  while  the  Pharma- 
copoeia of  the  New  York  Hospital  simply  recommends  that  when 
the  terms  tea-  or  tablespoonful  are  used,  they  be  considered  as  rep- 
resenting approximately  the  given  equivalents,  this  new,  eighth  de- 
cennial, revision  of  the  U.S. P.  directs  that  the  given  values  for 
approximate  measures  should  be  used,  despite  the  fact  that  they  are 
not  in  keeping  with  the  actual  capacity  of  the  spoons  mentioned. 
So  far  as  the  metric  system  of  weights  and  measures  is  concerned, 
the  revision  committee  appear  to  have  lost  sight  of  the  fact  that 
metric  quantities  are  decimal  in  nature  and  are  most  readily  multi- 
plied by  5  or  10,  or  multiples  of  these  figures. 
Altogether  it  may  be  said  that  the  figures  that  are  given  in  the 
