Am.  Jour.  Piiarm.l 
November,  1905.  J 
Pharmaceutical  Meeting. 
547 
in  the  Pharmacopoeia.  He  was  of  opinion  that  the  greater  purity 
of  the  medicinal  products  on  the  market  at  the  present  time  might 
account  for  the  smaller  doses  now  administered  of  certain  medicines. 
Mr.  Wilbert  also  remarked  on  the  latter  point,  and  said  that 
previous  to  the  organization  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Asso- 
ciation two  grades  of  medicines  were  brought  into  this  country — 
one  for  the  Western  country  and  one  for  the  seaboard.  The  drugs 
for  the  Western  country  were  much  inferior  in  quality,  and  as 
an  illustration  of  this  he  mentioned  that  chalk  was  substituted 
for  calomel,  which  of  course  necessitated  a  large  dose  of  the 
preparation. 
E.  M.  Boring  was  inclined  to  favor  the  method  adopted  in  the 
German  Pharmacopoeia  of  giving  the  maximum  and  minimum  quan- 
tities given  in  twenty-four  hours. 
E.  R.  Gatchel  referred  to  the  large  doses  of  certain  drugs  that 
were  prescribed  only  thirty  years  ago.  He  recalled  an  instance  in 
which  2  ounces  of  cinchona  were  prescribed  in  a  dozen  powders. 
With  regard  to  the  use  of  the  metric  system  of  weights  and 
measures  Professor  Lowe  said  that  it  was  not  only  much  more 
convenient  in  manufacturing,  but  that  it  is  much  better  to  use  the 
metric  quantities  than  to  attempt  to  convert  them  into  equivalents 
of  the  ordinary  system. 
Several  of  the  retail  druggists  present  contended  that  nearly  all 
druggists  are  provided  with  the  weights  and  measures  of  the  metric 
system. 
Professor  Sadtler  said  that  in  all  or  nearly  all  the  colleges  of  phar- 
macy the  metric  system  is  taught  and  that  when  the  student  gradu- 
ates he  is  master  of  it.  But  when  he  goes  into  the  store  he  comes 
in  contact  with  ordinary  prescriptions.  He  said  that  being  neither 
a  physician  nor  pharmacist  he  was  in  a  position  to  view  the  matter 
more  or  less  impartially,  and  he  was  convinced  that  if  physicians 
would  write  their  prescriptions  in  the  metric  system,  druggists 
would  compound  them  accordingly. 
Mr.  Gatchel  spoke  of  the  small  percentage  of  physicians  who  use 
the  metric  system  in  prescription  writing. 
Mr.  W'ilbert  contended  that  if  pharmacists  would  follow  the  metric 
system  physicians  would  be  more  inclined  to  use  it.  He  then  spoke 
of  the  advantages  of  the  system  in  assay  work,  and  said  that  the 
calculations  can  be  made  both  rapidly  and  accurately.  In  concluding 
