3/0     Eighth  Decennial  Revision  of  Pharmacopoeia.  {  AuiiguSrt,?905rm' 
The  recognition  that  the  present  edition  of  the  U.S. P.  will  receive, 
and  the  influence  that  it  will  have  among  medical  practitioners, 
will  depend  largely  on  how  the  pharmacists  of  the  country  demon- 
strate their  ability  to  interpret  the  descriptions,  the  formulas  and 
the  directions  that  are  embodied  in  it. 
That  the  time  that  has  elapsed  between  the  meeting  of  the 
National  Convention  in  1900,  and  the  final  publication  of  the  Phar- 
macopoeia in  1905,  has  been  so  long,  is  unfortunate,  and  is  probably 
due  to  a  series  of  unforeseen  circumstances  that  could  not  have  been 
properly  provided  for  by  the  National  Convention  itself.  For  the 
apparent  undue  haste,  however,  with  which  the  present  Pharma- 
copoeia is  expected  to  be  put  into  use,  as  the  official  authority,  after 
its  final  publication,  the  National  Convention  must  share  the  respon- 
sibility and  the  blame  with  the  members  of  the  Board  of  Trustees. 
It  is  true  that  the  National  Convention  resolved  that  the  date  when 
the  new  Pharmacopoeia  is  intended  to  go  into  effect  should  be 
reasonably  distant  from  the  actual  date  of  publication,  but  the  word- 
ing of  this  resolution  was  so  indefinite,  that,  in  view  of  the  long 
period  of  time  that  has  elapsed  since  the  present  revision  of  the 
Pharmacopoeia  was  commenced,  the  members  of  the  Board  of  Trus- 
tees should  not  be  too  severely  criticized  for  appearing  to  be  over- 
anxious to  get  this,  their  first  venture  in  the  publication  line,  before 
the  medical  and  pharmaceutical  professions. 
A  repetition  of  this  rather  unfortunate  combination  of  circum- 
stances might,  and  properly  should,  be  guarded  against  at  the  next 
decennial  meeting  of  the  United  States  Pharmacopceial  Convention, 
in  1910,  by  outlining  more  clearly  the  general  principles  to  be 
followed  in  revising  the  Pharmacopoeia  and  by  fixing  on  a  definite 
date,  at  least  four  or  six  months  after  the  actual  publication  of  the 
book,  when  the  same  shall  become  authoritative  and  official. 
The  time  that  is  usually  required  to  prepare  the  revision  of  the 
Pharmacopoeia  for  the  press  could,  and  certainly  should,  be  mate- 
rially reduced  if  pharmacists,  and  others  who  are  interested,  would 
liberally  criticise  the  book  before  the  meeting  of  the  National  Con- 
vention so  as  to  allow  the  Committee  on  Revision  and  the  repre- 
sentatives of  accredited  societies  to  present  definite  and  acceptable 
outlines  for  revising  not  alone  the  general  principles  that  are  in- 
volved but  also  such  of  the  official  formulas  and  descriptions  as  may 
be  found  faulty  or  incorrect. 
