AnAuJ-°usrt  ^i™'  ^     Revision  of  the  Pharmacopoeia.  511 
century,  in  which  had  taken  place  great  world  changes.  It  was  dur- 
ing that  time  that  surgery  moved  forward  a  thousand  years  in  a 
day.  Procedures,  startling  in  character  and  far-reaching  in  results, 
followed  each  other  in  quick  succession. 
No  one  has  yet  written  the  full  measure  of  the  progress  in  the 
practice  of  the  healing  art  of  the  days  just  past.  All  this  has  wrought 
a  most  profound  change  in  the  practice  of  medicine,  pharmacy  and 
surgery,  and  had  an  important  bearing  upon  our  pharmacopoeia. 
The  present  revision  comes  in  the  dawn  of  a  new  time.  Consti- 
tutions, nations,  races,  peoples — the  whole  world — has  been  shaken 
to  its  innermost  depths.  We  emerge  from  the  ravages  of  the  world 
war-torn  and  bruised.  The  effects  upon  peoples,  upon  science,  upon 
the  practice  of  medicine  and  pharmacy,  are  not  at  the  moment 
clarified,  but  we  must  take  up  the  burden  with  stout  hearts  and  a 
full  hope. 
Scope  of  the  Pharmacopoeia. 
The  two  last  revisions  of  the  pharmacopoeia  have  been  the  basis 
of  an  unusually  extended  discussion  as  to  the  nature  and  scope  of 
such  a  work.  In  these  discussions  it  is  quite  evident  that  the  real 
nature  of  the  pharmacopoeia  has  been  lost  sight  of. 
Charles  Rice,  the  master  maker  of  pharmacopoeias,  stated  that, 
"at  the  present  day  the  work  may  be  considered  prescriptive  for, 
and  descriptive  of,  medicine."  He  stated  that  the  manufacture  of 
certain  classes  of  pharmaceutical  preparations  is  becoming  more 
and  more  concentrated  in  the  hands  of  large  institutions.  The  func- 
tion of  the  pharmacist  is  chiefly  confined  to  the  examination  of  the 
preparations  and  substances  which  he  buys,  by  means  of  such  tests 
as  are  available  to  him. 
Recognizing  this  condition,  the  later  pharmacopoeias  have  elimi- 
nated working  processes  for  preparations  which  have  passed  almost 
entirely  into  the  hands  of  the  large  manufacturer  and  have  substi- 
tuted for  them  more  detailed  descriptions  and  tests. 
Under  these  definitions  it  is  quite  apparent  that  the  pharma- 
copoeia is  not  a  text-book,  either  for  medical,  pharmaceutical,  or 
chemical  students ;  it  is  not  a  working  manual  for  the  manufacturer ; 
it  is  not  a  guide  for  the  practice  of  medicine,  nor  a  code  book  for  the 
collector  of  customs  and  the  food  and  drug  inspector. 
