^u^St,  ig 5™" }     Revision  of  the  Pharmacopoeia.  52i 
medicine  or  pharmacy,  some  one  organization  of  trade,  the  vital 
breath  would  disappear. 
The  pharmacopoeia  must  be  representative — it  must  not  be  for- 
mulated for  one  school  of  medicine  to  the  exclusion  of  another,  for 
one  state  or  one  locality  to  the  exclusion  of  others.  It  must  not  be  a 
college  text-book,  or  a  manufacturer's  compendium.  It  must  not 
tear  down  or  build  up  one  branch  of  pharmacy  or  of  medicine.  It 
is  not  a  book  of  regulations  for  the  use  of  bureaucratic  inspectors. 
Its  foundation  must  be  broad,  wide,  deep — for  the  people  of  the 
realm  whose  representatives  founded  and  kept  it  where  it  is. 
The  authority  for  the  pharmacopceial  revision  should  not  be 
vested  in  one  man  or  even  one  set  of  men.  We  must  maintain  a 
system  of  checks  and  balances.  The  authority  and  the  responsibil- 
ity must  be  divided.  We  are  told  that  concentration  would  make 
for  efficiency.  On  the  other  hand,  concentration  would  also  make 
for  tyranny. 
Put  the  making  of  the  pharmacopoeia  in  the  hands  of  a  drug 
inspector,  and  it  would  emerge  a  set  of  rigid  standards  and  tests, 
covering  a  most  restricted  number  of  substances.  Put  the  revision 
in  the  hands  of  a  physician  and  he  would  select  a  dozen  drugs,  and 
enact  that  these  drugs  and  no  others  were  to  be  recognized  for  use 
in  medicine. 
While  the  ever-increasing  complexity  of  the  problems  involved 
in  revising  the  pharmacopoeia,  demand  that  for  efficiency  there  must 
be  a  concentration  of  power  as  well  as  a  division  of  labors,  we  must 
ever  guard  against  the  concentration  of  power  into  one  school,  one 
party,  or  one  man. 
It  is  vital  that  the  fundamental  principles  of  the  pharmacopoeia 
shall  be  known  and  accepted  by  all  who  have  to  do  with  that  which 
is  written  between  its  covers.  This  means  that  those  who  in  any 
way  have  to  do  with  the  making,  handling,  selling,  buying  or  dis- 
pensing of  medicines  must  support  the  pharmacopoeia.  It  is  the 
pharmacopoeia  of  the  people,  for  the  people  and  by  the  people.  The 
breath  of  this  life,  its  continued  vitality,  depend  upon  the  general 
and  intelligent  acceptance  of  it  by  all  people.  Pharmacists,  chem- 
ists, druggists,  physicians  and  patients  alike  must  have  faith  in  it, 
must  believe  in  it,  must  uphold  it. 
The  pharmacopoeia  is  far  from  complete.  It  is  for  this  reason 
that  provision  has  been  made  for  its  periodic  revision.  But  there 
are  certain  underlying  principles  which  cannot  be  destroyed  or  im- 
