266 
Progress  in  Pharmacy. 
{  Am.  Jour,  rimim. 
X      June,  1913. 
isolated  and  described  there  is  none  to  which  any  specific  physio- 
logical action  can  be  attributed.  Such  therapeutic  virtues  as  the 
plant  has  been  presumed  to  possess  would  therefore  not  appear  to 
depend  upon  any  single  substance  of  a  definite  chemical  character. 
Epinephrin. — Solutions  of  epinephrin  treated  with  gold  chlo- 
ride give  a  decided  red  color.  Gautier  says  that  this  reaction  is  so 
sensitive  that  this  drug  can  be  detected  in  extremely  attenuated 
dilutions. 
The  Pharmacist  and  the  Patent  Medicine. — The  foregoing 
is  the  title  of  an  editorial  in  the  April  number  of  the  Journal  of  the 
A.  Ph.  A.,  in  which  Editor  Beal,  as  a  tentative  proposition,  sug- 
gests that  the  A.  Ph.  A.  appoint  a  Council  on  Proprietary  Medi- 
cines. Among  other  things  its  function  to  be  that  of  determin- 
ing whether  there  is  such  a  thing  as  a  legitimate  proprietary 
medicine  which  a  pharmacist  may  conscientiously  recommend  and 
sell  to  the  general  public.  "  And  whether  on  the  whole  the  public 
is  benefited  or  injured  by  the  use  of  such  ready-made  medicines." 
If  this  conclusion  can  be  arrived  at,  then  a  line  of  demarcation 
between  legitimate  and  illegitimate  remedies,  whether  made  by  the 
individual  druggist,  by  druggists'  co-operative  bodies,  or  other- 
wise. 
That  there  may  be  some  objection  to  the  organization  of  such  a 
Council  because  of  the  existence  and  work  of  the  Council  on 
Pharmacy  and  Chemistry  of  the  A.  M.  A.  he  admits,  but  does 
not  regard  it  as  a  valid  one.  The  main  reason  for  the  organization 
of  the  new  council  would  be  to  place  organized  pharmacy  on  record 
on  this  question. 
Let  us  hope  that  when  organized  pharmacy  does  take  its  final 
stand  on  this  vital  question  of  public  health  it  shall  be  on  the  same 
high  level  taken  by  organized  medicine. 
Pharmacopceial  Matters. — Osborne  in  Jour.  A.  M.  A.  for 
May  10,  1913,  just  three  years  from  the  date  of  convention,  makes 
a  final  plea  for  a  useful  pharmacopoeia.  He  says  in  part :  "  Shall 
we  have  the  United  States  Pharmacopoeia  up-to-date  and  of  scien- 
tific and  therapeutic  value,  or  shall  it  be  a  book  of  ancient  drug 
lore  intermixed  with  drugs  of  real  value."  In  an  up-to-date  book 
of  this  age,  a  drug,  in  order  to  gain  acceptance,  must  have  thera- 
peutic value,  be  pure,  and  the  preparations  must  be  of  the  best. 
The  chairman  of  the  pharmacopceial  revision  committee  has  been 
quoted  as  stating  that  nearly  all  of  the  reports  of  the  sub-commit- 
tees are  finished  and  that  the  executive  committee  has  already 
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