August  m"  }      Pharmacists  and  Pharmacopoeia,  393 
States  Government  is  to  my  mind,  at  the  present  time,  an  exceed- 
ingly dangerous  one.  The  tendency  to  autocratic  and  beaurocratic 
officialism  is  but  little  less  obnoxious  than  the  tendency  to  partisan- 
ship and  political  domination  and  this  would  preclude  much  of  the 
most  independent  and  most  reliable  work.  Official  jealousy  and 
suspicion  would  most  likely  discredit  valuable  work  of  the  practical 
manufacturer,  the  experienced  clinician,  or  pharmacist.  I  doubt  if 
we  are  yet  ready  to  adopt  paternalism  in  this  connection  with  all 
of  its  possible  attending  evils. 
The  government  does  not  publish  the  standard  legal  works  and 
text-books  on  law  and  there  is  no  more  justification  for  it  to  engage 
in  publishing  legal  works  on  medicine  and  pharmacy. 
No  one  interest  or  set  of  men,  however  learned  as  specialists, 
could  to-day  prepare  a  Pharmacopoeia  that  would  be  satisfactory, 
because  as  a  legal  standard  so  many  varied  interests  become  affected 
by  it.  Equity  and  justice  demand  the  co-operation  of  all  of  these 
interests  and  likewise  that  of  the  government  service. 
The  United  States  Pharmacopoeia  is  not  yet  perfect  and  every 
interest  concerned  should  be  encouraged  to  assist  in  its  improvement 
and  perfection.  There  is  hardly  a  subject  that  will  not  "permit  of 
further  study  and  investigation,  and  much  experimental  work  is  yet 
needed  to  determine  the  scientific  accuracy  of  descriptions,  assays, 
and  processes.  These  are  the  very  avenues  of  progress  and  they 
should  be  kept  open  and  inviting. 
Let  us  by  all  means  avoid  the  fate  of  Hindoo  learning  so  graph- 
ically portrayed  by  the  author  of  "  Ben  Hur "  in  the  language 
attributed  to  Melchoir  in  the  meeting  in  the  desert :  "  Such,  O 
brethren,  are  the  Great  Shastras,  or  books  of  sacred  ordinances. 
They  are  dead  to  me  now ;  yet  through  all  time  they  will  serve  to 
illustrate  the  budding  genius  of  my  race.  They  were  promises  of 
quick  perfection.  Ask  you  why  the  promises  failed?  Alas!  The 
books  themselves  closed  all  the  gates  of  progress.  Under  pretext 
of  care  for  the  creature,  their  authors  imposed  the  fatal  principle 
that  a  man  must  not  address  himself  to  discovery  or  invention,  as 
Heaven  had  provided  him  all  things  needful.  When  that  condition 
became  a  sacred  law,  the  lamp  of  Hindoo  genius  was  let  down  a 
well,  where  ever  since  it  has  lighted  narrow  walls  and  bitter  waters." 
