Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
December,  1909. 
}    Pharmacopoeial  Convention  of  igio.  565 
PROBLEMS  FOR  THE  PHARMACOPOEIAL  CONVENTION 
OF  1910. 
By  M.  I.  Wilbert,  Washington,  D.C. 
The  coming  United  States  Pharmacopoeial  Revision  Convention 
has  been  a  fruitful  subject  for  discussion  at  many,  if  not  all  of  the 
annual  meetings  of  medical  and  pharmaceutical  associations,  and 
not  a  few  of  the  problems  that  must  be  considered  by  the  delegates 
taking  part  in  that  convention  are  now  being  seriously  discussed 
by  physicians  and  pharmacists  in  all  parts  of  this  country. 
While  it  is  generally  admitted  that  the  Pharmacopoeia  of  the 
United  States  is,  and  for  several  decades  has  been,  the  "  peer " 
among  national  pharmacopoeias,  there  is  nevertheless  much  truth 
in  the  opening  sentence  of  the  report  of  the  A. Ph. A.  Committee  on 
the  U.S. P.  which  asserts  that :  "  The  masterpiece  of  to-day  becomes 
to-morrow  but  the  imperfect  model  for  a  higher  ideal." 
So  much  has  been  said  and  written  on  this  subject  that  it  would 
be  futile  for  me  to  attempt  to  say  anything  original,  and  I  will, 
therefore,  content  myself  with  calling  your  attention  to  what  others, 
more  able  and  better  informed  than  I,  have  had  to  say  on  the  matter 
of  pharmacopoeial  revision,  including  the  scope  of  the  Pharmacopoeia 
and  the  intent  of  the  originators  of  that  book;  for  after  all  is  said 
the  intent  of  the  originators  should  be  respected,  granting  of  course 
that  their  intent  was  proper  and  their  ideal  designed  to  further 
the  public  good. 
It  is  safe  to  say  that  no  American  pharmacopoeia  up  to  the  present 
time  has  been  so  much  or  so  thoroughly  criticized  as  the  now 
official  U.S. P.  VIII,  and  perhaps  no  one  will  gainsay  the  statement 
that  the  most  severe  arraignment  to  which  this  pharmacopoeia  has 
been  subjected  is  reflected  in  the  publication  of  "  New  and  Non- 
official  Remedies  "  by  the  American  Medical  Association  and  the 
"Additions  and  Corrections,  U.S.  Pharmacopoeia  (8th  Rev.)  May  1, 
1907  (et  al.)"  published  with  the  approval  of  the  committee  less 
than  two  years  after  the  publication  of  the  U.S. P.  VIII  itself. 
The  first  of  these  publications  has  been  very  widely  interpreted 
as  an  indication  that  the  U.S. P.  VIII  does  not  fully  meet  the  needs 
and  wants  of  medical  practitioners  and  the  second,  embodying  as 
it  does  a  total  of  431  changes,  many  of  them  important  and  all  of 
