526 
Editorial. — Reviews,  etc. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Oct.,  1879 
demand.  The  few  months  that  are  left  before  the  Pharmacopoeia  Convention  will 
convene  will  rapidly  pass,  and  in  the  mean  time  the  opportunities  will  not  be  over 
abundant  for  the  critical  examination  of  different  views  on  disputed  points,  even  if 
such  examination  should  be  merely  based  on  the  necessarily  incomplete  elaboration 
presented  at  the  last  meeting  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association,  and 
which  was,  in  our  opinion  not  very  advisedly,  ordered  to  be  published.  To  make 
the  Pharmacopoeia  truly  national,  the  well  directed  labor  of  all  Pharmaceutical  Asso- 
ciations, and  more  particularly  of  the  colleges,  is  required;  we  are  sorry  to  acknowl- 
edge that  from  present  appearances  the  investigations  will  probably  be  limited  to 
those  made  by  a  few  individuals,  though  we  expect  the  criticisms  to  be  numerous. 
To  guard  against  such  a  contingency,  it  seems  to  us  that  every  College  of  Pharmacy 
and  Pharmaceutical  Association  should  subject  such  portions  of  the  pharmacopoeia 
to  a  thorough  and  careful  revision,  based  upon  actual  experiment,  as  can  be  accom- 
plished in  the  remaining  few  months,  rather  than  letting  it  go  by  default  or  basing 
propositions  only  or  mainly  on  the  opinion  of  others.  The  most  important  work 
which,  in  our  opinion,  has  been  accomplished  by  the  committee  of  the  American 
Pharmaceutical  Association  is  not  to  be  measured  by  the  nature  or  number  of  the 
formulas,  etc.,  presented  at  the  last  meeting,  nearly  all  of  which  express  only  the 
views  of  one  or  a  few  of  its  members ;  but  in  agreeing  upon  general  principles  upon 
which  the  work  of  preliminary  revision  should  be  done.  This  result  was  arrived  at 
through  the  judicious,  unceasing  labor  of  its  chairman,  Mr.  Charles  Rice,  a  result 
which  deserves  the  most  unreserved  commendation.  That  all  these  efforts  did  not 
serve  as  a  sufficient  stimulus  for  all  the  pharmaceutical  societies  of  the  country  to 
undertake  the  revision  from  their  own  standpoint  is  not  the  fault  of  Mr.  Rice  or  of 
the  committee.  In  view  of  the  short  time  left  now,  we  would  advise  all  Pharmaceu- 
tical Colleges  and  societies  to  proceed  without  delay  with  the  preliminary  revision  of 
such  portions  that  can  be  worked  out  from  the  united  observations  of  their  own 
members.  It  is,  by  far,  better  to  aim  at  little  and  accomplish  this  well,  than  to 
attempt  much  with  nothing  to  rely  on,  except  the  experience  or  the  views  of  others. 
Correction. — In  the  editorial  note,  fourth  line  from  below,  on  page  388,  the  fig- 
ures 28  should  be  12,  so  as  to  make  the  total  amount  of  alcohol  used  28  fluidounces. 
REVIEWS  AND  BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTICES. 
Proceedings  of  the  Pennsylvania  Pharmaceutical  Association  at  its  Meetings  held  in 
Harrisburg,  February  26th,  1878;  Reading,  June  nth,  1878;  Pittsburgh,  June 
10th,  1879.    Harrisburg:  Lane  S.  Hart,  Printer  and  Binder.    8vo,  pp.  64. 
Reports  on  the  three  meetings  held  by  the  Pennsylvania  Pharmaceutical  Associa- 
tion were  published  heretofore  in  this  journal.  The  pamphlet  before  us  contains 
the  official  minutes  of  these  meetings,  together  with  the  four  papers  read ;  also  the 
charter,  constitution  and  by-laws,  and  lists  of  the  present  officers,  committees  and 
members.  The  association  has  at  present,  besides  4  honorary,  137  active  members, 
residing  in  26  counties. 
