Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  | 
Jan.,  1875.  j 
Revision  of  Pharmacopceia, 
19 
in  the  perfection  of  our  national  standard,  should  be  made  full  and 
explicit  in  details,  and  leave  to  the  Committee  the  task  of  verification 
and  testing,  rather  than  that  of  original  investigation." 
In  vievs^  of  this  state  of  things,  every  pharmacist  can  w^ell  imagine 
what  amount  of  labor  fell  to  the  lot  of  the  Committee  of  Final  Revi- 
sion by  the  apathy  and  neglect  of  duty  of  the  representatives  of  the 
medical  and  pharmaceutical  bodies  directly  interested  therein.  And 
when  it  is  considered  that  out  of  this  committee  of  fifteen  persons 
there  were  but  six  practical  pharmacists — men  who  had  the  practical 
experience,  skill  and  judgment  requisite  to  make  the  necessary  experi- 
ments to  test  suspected  formulas,  and  to  devise  new  ones  when  neces- 
sary, and  to  modify  and  improve  those  needing  amendment — it  is  easy 
to  conjecture  what  amount  of  work  had  to  be  done  by  this  part  of  the 
Committee.  Of  course,  such  gentlemen  as  Drs.  Wood,  Carson  and 
Bridges,  and  perhaps  others  among  the  medical  members,  whose  qual- 
ifications for  the  task  may  be  unknown  to  me,  could  be  of  great  ser- 
vice in  certain  parts  of  the  work,  such  as  selecting  articles  and  prep- 
arations, both  old  and  new,  that  were  presented  for  acceptance,  and  in 
passing  judgment  upon  their  claims  to  admission  into  the  Pharmaco- 
poeia, and  in  arranging  and  assigning  them  to  their  proper  positions 
therein,  and  also  in  criticising  and  examining  the  officinal  list,  and 
expurgating  from  it  all  such  articles  as  have  by  experience  been  found 
useless,  obsolete,  and  no  longer  worthy  of  a  place  in  the  Pharmaco- 
poeia. In  these  matters  medical  men  can  be  of  the  most  service  ;  and, 
in  fact,  it  is  only  in  this  part  of  the  work  that  they  could  be  of  mate- 
rial aid.  The  most  important  and  the  most  onerous  duties  of  the  Com- 
mittee of  Revision  are  such  as  belong  to  the  pharmacist  alone,  and 
none  but  practical  pharmacists  are  competent  to  properly  perform 
them. 
If  my  conceptions  of  the  matter  are  correct,  the  majority,  at  least, 
of  such  a  Committee  should  consist  of  practical  pharmacists  and  medi- 
cal gentlemen  whose  special  studies  and  opportunities  have  qualified 
them  for  its  duties. 
Is  there  no  remedy  in  the  future  for  the  state  of  things  that  has  here- 
tofore existed  ?  What  do  the  majority  of  physicians  know  about  revis- 
ing the  formulae  of  our  Pharmacopoeia  ?  In  fact,  they  do  not  pretend 
to  such  knowledge  ;  for,  perhaps,  they  have  never  worked  a  process, 
nor  made  a  single  pharmaceutical  preparation  in  their  lives. 
Such  medical  gentlemen  as  Doctors  Wood,  Carson  and  Bridges  are 
