^™pteniberPi9i3Q' }  Formulary  and  Proprietary  Remedies.  409 
and  even  pharmacists  are  actually  convinced  that  there  is  an  ele- 
ment of  truth  in  the  assertion  that  the  National  Formulary  is  at 
best  but  a  compilation  of  formulas  for  poor  imitations  of  widely 
used,  original  and  medicinally  valuable  remedies. 
This  accusation,  while  it  sounds  formidable,  will  not  bear  care- 
ful analysis,  for  the  preparations  represented  in  the  National  For- 
mulary can  readily  be  shown  to  be :  1.  Not  imitations  in  any  sense 
of  the  word  because  the  preparations  of  which  the  N.  F.  prepara- 
tions are  said  to  be  imitations  are  themselves  not  original  and  have 
nothing  to  be  imitated  except  the  method  of  their  exploitation. 
2.  Not  indispensable  or  even  medicinally  valuable  despite  the  fact 
that  some  of  them  are  widely  used. 
That  the  National  Formulary  does  not  and  of  necessity  cannot 
include  formulas  -for  preparations  that  are  indispensable  or  even 
particularly  valuable  must  be  conceded  when  we  call  to  mind  the 
fact  that  the  Pharmacopoeia  of  the  United  States  has  for  nearly  a 
century  included  formulas  and  standards  for  all  of  the  really  valu- 
able remedies  known  to  American  medicine.  The  completeness 
with  which  this  is  done  is  reflected  by  the  frequently  made  asser- 
tion that  the  Pharmacopoeia  contains  an  over  abundance  of  mate- 
rial and  at  the  present  time  includes  many  articles  that  are  neither 
valuable  nor  indispensable,  while  the  number  of  really  useful 
galenicals  that  are  not  recognized  by  the  U.  S.  P.  is  indeed  small; 
granting  that  there  are  any. 
The  National  Formulary  is  not  and  never  was  intended  to  be 
other  than  a  repository  of  formulas  for  preparations,  good,  bad  or 
indifferent  that  have  been  recognized  in  current  literature  or  are 
being  experimented  with  by  physicians  and  for  which  there  is  need 
for  establishing  a  uniform  standard  of  strength  so  as  to  avoid 
variable  and  possibly  untoward  results  from  the  use  of  preparations 
differing  in  composition  or  strength  at  the  will  of  the  maker. 
The  primary  and  the  only  valid  object  then,  in  including  the 
formula  for  a  preparation  in  the  National  Formulary,  is  to  give 
that  preparation  the  benefit  of  any  doubt  as  to  its  possible  useful- 
ness and  by  securing  uniformity  in  composition  and  strength  for  a 
reasonable  period  of  time,  allowing  medical  practitioners  to  deter- 
mine impartially  by  experience  and  observation  the  utility  or  the 
uselessness  of  the  combination  for  the  purposes  for  which  it  was 
thought  to  be  useful. 
This  brings  up  again  the  question  of  originality  and  the  accom- 
