ANovemberFhiaori^"  )      Committee  on  Pharmacopoeias.  709 
It  is  noteworthy  that  while  the  U.  S.  P.  IX  has  now  been  before 
the  public  for  three  years,  the  criticisms  and  suggestions  for  im- 
provements and  the  actual  errors  pointed  out,  have  been  very  much 
less  than  occurred  within  the  same  period  after  the  revisions  of 
1880,  1890  and  1900.  Like  all  other  works  of  human  beings,  it  has 
its  faults  and  corrections  as  well  as  the  changes  that  have  occurred 
in  the  medical  practices  and  in  the  materia  medica  since  1910,  call 
for  the  usual  decennial  revision. 
It  is  believed  that  the  Committee  of  Revision  and  the  Pharma- 
copoeial  Convention  will  welcome  constructive  criticisms  and  sug- 
gestions. At  the  previous  convention,  your  delegates  presented  in 
book  form  a  typewritten  abstract  of  all  recommendations  relating  to 
the  Pharmacopoeia  that  had  been  printed  in  the  proceedings  of  the 
New  Jersey  Pharmaceutical  Association  during  the  decade.  This 
was  referred  to  the  Committee  of  Revision  and  no  doubt  was  of 
some  service  in  their  work.  We  would  recommend  that  the  dele- 
gates selected  to  attend  the  1920  convention  be  instructed  to  prepare 
and  submit  a  similar  report  embodying  abstracts  from  our  proceed- 
ings and  the  suggestions  and  recommendations  approved  at  this 
meeting. 
Your  committee  are  of  the  opinion  that  this  Association,  as  well 
as  other  pharmaceutical,  medical  and  chemical  societies,  should 
enunciate  its  views  upon  the  general  principles  that  should  be  fol- 
lowed in  the  coming  revision  and  likewise  upon  special  topics.  With 
that  end  in  view,  we  submit  the  following  specific  recommendations. 
We  recommend  that  the  "  Scope  of  the  Pharmacopoeia "  as  de- 
fined in  the  U.  S.  P.  IX  be  retained  for  the  next  revision. 
We  recommend  that  the  admission  of  an  article  or  preparation 
to  the  pharmacopoeia  be  based  upon  its  determined  general  medical 
use  justifying  an  official  standard.  That  the  dismissal  of  any  article 
now  standardized  as  a  medicament  in  the  U.  S.  P.  IX  be  based  upon 
a  determination  that  its  general  use  as  a  medicine  is  not  sufficient  to 
justify  its  retention. 
It  is  believed  that  the  monographic  presentation  of  standards  for 
the  drugs,  chemicals  and  preparations  in  alphabetical  sequence  as 
followed  in  the  preceding  revision  is  the  best  that  can  be  devised 
both  for  reference  and  clarity  of  presentation  of  the  subjects  and  it 
is  recommended  that  this  be  continued. 
It  is  especially  recommended  that  the  style  adopted  for  titles, 
synonyms,  definitions  and  "  purity  rubric  "  in  the  ninth  revision  be 
