Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  \ 
October,  1905.  j 
Chemical  Materia  Medica. 
473 
adhered  to  in  the  manufacture  of  a  preparation,  the  label  should 
specifically  state  how  it  differs  from  the  pharmacopoeial  standard  so 
that  the  buyer  may  be  made  aware  of  the  fact  that  it  is  not  an  official 
product,  and  thus  make  it  possible  for  him  to  choose  between  the 
official  and  the  unofficial  preparation. 
The  manufacture  of  unauthorized  proprietary  pharmaceutical 
preparations  or  specialties,  many  of  which  possess  undoubted  thera- 
peutic merit,  has  been  regarded  as  a  growing  evil  during  the  past 
decade.  While  such  preparations  cannot  be  officially  recognized 
until  divested  of  all  secrecy  and  proprietary  claims,  the  fact  of  their 
possessing  therapeutic  merit  entitles  them  to  recognition,  provided 
the  proprietors  or  manufacturers  publish  full  knowledge  concerning 
them  for  the  benefit  of  science  and  relinquish  all  proprietary  claims 
to  the  same,  relying  upon  the  adoption  of  work  marks  or  brand 
names  to  properly  distinguish  their  brand.  Only  when  such  condi- 
tions are  complied  with  by  manufacturers,  can  the  proprietary  prep- 
arations or  specialties  be  classified  as  pharmaceutical  products, 
subject,  of  course,  to  standardization,  and  their  use  authorized  for 
pharmaceutical  purposes. 
With  the  advent  of  the  new  Pharmacopoeia  just  being  issued  and 
correct  standards,  the  field  of  manufacturing  pharmacy  provides 
vast  possibilities  in  the  future.  As  in  the  past,  the  manufacturing 
chemist  will  draw  his  crude  material  from  nature's  green  fields  and 
from  the  bowels  of  the  earth.  The  animal  kingdom  will  contribute 
even  a  greater  number  of  products  to  materia  medica  than  it  does 
at  present,  and  the  manufacturing  chemist,  unlike  the  alchemist  of 
old,  will  have  his  processes  illumined  by  the  light  of  scientific 
knowledge  to  guide  him  in  the  manufacture  of  medications  comply- 
ing with  pharmacopoeial  standards  for  the  benefit  of  mankind. 
National  Pharmacy  Company, 
San  Francisco,  Cal. 
THE  EVOLUTION  OF  THE  CHEMICAL  MATERIA  MEDICA. 
Dr.  Friedrich  Sperling,  in  the  appendix  to  an  address  on  "  The 
Materia  Medica  Once  and  Now,"  delivered  before  the  Austrian  Phar- 
maceutical Association  at  Vienna,  March  1 1,  1905,  gives  a  chron- 
ologically arranged  list  of  the  introduction  of  some  of  the  more  im- 
portant chemical  medicaments. 
