Am.  Jour.  Phariii.  ) 
Juue,  1909.  j 
Progress  in  Pharmacy. 
291 
scientific  investigators,  who  have  co-operated  in  the  work  of  the 
Council  during  the  past  year,  includes  a  number  of  prominent 
members  of  the  pharmaceutical  profession. — /.  Amcr.  Med.  Assoc., 
1909,  v.  52,  p.  708  and  716. 
Practical  Methods  of  Revising  the  Pharmacopoeia. — An  editorial 
calls  attention  to  a  possible  application  of  the  work  of  the  Council 
on  Pharmacy  and  Chemistry  in  the  revision  of  the  U.  S.  P.,  and 
more  directly  to  an  excellent  method  of  interesting  physicians  in 
the  Pharmacopoeia  and  the  improvement  of  the  content.  As  a 
practical  experiment  the  Section  on  Ophthalmology  of  the  A.  M.  A. 
has  selected  from  fifty  of  the  best  known  drugs  in  "  New  and 
Non-official  Remedies  "  fourteen  that  were  thought  to  have  a  suffi- 
ciently wide  employment  by  ophthalmic  surgeons  to  justify 
official  recognition.  A  list  of  these  fourteen  drugs  has  been  sent 
on  a  return  postal  card  to  each  of  the  935  members  of  the  Section, 
with  instructions  to  mark  six  deemed  most  useful.  The  replies 
will  be  tabulated.  Those  receiving  the  largest  number  of  votes 
will  be  recommended  for  inclusion  in  the  next  revision  of  the  Phar- 
macopoeia.— J.  Amer.  Med.  Assoc.,  1909,  v.  52,  p.  1430. 
Physiological  Testing  of  Drugs. — At  a  meeting  of  the  City  of 
Washington  Branch  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association, 
the  general  need  for  developing  the  physiologic  control  of  active 
medicaments  was  demonstrated  to  be  not  alone  desirable  but  also 
necessary.  Few  abuses  are  more  thoroughly  objectionable  than  the 
commercial  exploitation  of  pharmacology  in  the  interest  of  phar- 
maceutical manufacturers.  That  there  is  a  wide  and  growing  field 
for  scientific  work  in  this  connection  is  amply  shown  by  the  nature 
of  the  communications  presented  at  this  meeting. — /.  Amer.  Med. 
Assoc.,  1909,  v.  52,  p.  784. 
Digitalis. — A  comprehensive  review  of  the  efforts  that  have  been 
made  to  standardize  and  control  digitalis  is  presented  in  Hygienic 
Laboratory  Bulletin  No.  48  entitled  il  The  Physiological  Standardi- 
zation of  Digitalis,"  by  Edmunds  and  Hale.  The  bulletin  is  a 
pamphlet  of  sixty-one  pages  and  includes  a  consideration  of  the 
chemistry  of  digitalis,  the  relationship  of  digitoxin  content  to 
physiological  activity,  the  variability  of  digitalis  preparations,  liter- 
ature relating  to  standardization  methods,  and  summary  of  stand- 
ardization literature.  It  also  includes  a  report  of  experiments 
conducted  to  determine  the  comparative  activity  of  a  number  of 
commercial  preparations.    Every  pharmacist  should  become  familiar 
