710  Committee  on  Pharmacopoeias.  {ANovemberPhi9ri^' 
followed  in  the  tenth  and  that  limits  of  purity  in  each  case  be  given 
careful  consideration  and  made  as  elastic  as  is  consistent  with  the 
maintenance  of  standards  of  quality  and  the  prevention  of  fraud 
and  carelessness. 
With  the  changes  that  are  continuously  taking  place  in  the  source 
of  and  markets  for  pure  drugs  and  also  the  numerous  undertakings 
throughout  the  world  of  the  cultivation  of  drug  plants,  it  is  urged 
that  unless  absolutely  necessary  in  order  to  determine  quality,  the 
Pharmacopoeia  omit  geographical  designations  and  further  that  such 
changes  as  are  due  to  cultivation,  difference  in  climates  or  modes  of 
collection  and  preparation  of  such  drugs  be  given  due  consideration 
in  the  framing  of  the  standards  and  tests. 
While  approving  of  the  principle  of  the  unification  of  formulas 
for  potent  remedies  by  international  agreements,  it  is  our  opinion 
that  the  conclusions  arrived  at  by  the  "  Conference  Internationale 
pour  l'Unification  de  la  Formulo  des  Medicaments  Heroiques  "  held 
in  Brussels  in  1902  were  not  entirely  free  from  faults  and  that  these 
are  not  such  as  would  be  approved  in  their  entirety  at  this  time.  It 
is  recommended  that  the  United  States  Pharmacopceial  Convention 
should  take  the  initiative  in  inviting  another  international  conference 
for  this  purpose  in  the  near  future,  preferably,  in  the  United  States 
and  that  the  conclusions  be  incorporated  in  the  U.  S.  P.  X. 
It  is  believed  that  the  method  of  stating  the  chemical  formulas 
adopted  in  the  ninth  revision  is  well  suited  for  the  purposes  of  the 
pharmacopoeia  and  so  it  is  recommended  that  the  same  methods  or 
with  only  minor  modifications,  be  retained.  Also  that  the  atomic 
and  molecular  weights  employed  be  the  latest  available  Report  of 
the  International  Committee  on  Atomic  Weights. 
It  is  recommended  that  the  weights  and  measures  adopted  be  re- 
stricted exclusively  to  the  metric  system.  In  order  that  the  profes- 
sional interests  may  be  encouraged  and  likewise  that  the  commerce 
of  the  nation  may  be  stimulated  it  is  uregd  that  the  Pharmacopceial 
Convention  give  the  force  of  its  endorseemnt  toward  making  the  use 
of  the  metric  system  universal  in  medical  practices  and  in  the  com- 
mercial transactions  in  the  United  States  after  a  fixed  date. 
In  the  eighth  and  ninth  revisions  25 0  C.  was  adopted  as  the 
standard  temperature.  The  Bureau  of  Standards  of  the  United 
States  has  persisted  in  maintaining  200  C.  and  several  of  the  other 
departments  of  the  federal  government  prefer  to  follow  the  Bureau 
in  this  matter.   It  is  obvious  that  two  standard  temperatures  should 
