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PHARMACOPOEIA OF THE UNITED STATES. 
ART. XVII — THE PHARMACOPOEIA OF THE UNITED STATES 
OF AMERICA, BY AUTHORITY OF THE NATIONAL MEDI- 
CAL CONVENTION HELD AT WASHINGTON, A. D. 1840: 
8vo., Grigg & Elliot, 1842. 
The proceedings of the Convention for the revision of the 
Pharmacopoeia, which met in January, 1S40, have been placed 
before the public through the medium of this and similar 
journals : it is therefore unnecessary to detail the initiatory 
steps taken to secure the execution of the work for which that 
body was organized. The only feasible plan was the one 
adopted — the appointment of a committee to whom the revi- 
sion was entrusted, and from the hands of this committee the 
present revised edition has emanated. The delay in publica- 
tion has arisen from circumstances which rendered it expe- 
dient for the advantage of the work, and which were insepa- 
rable from the course which the committee were authorized 
to pursue : the whole ground of the subject had not only to 
be gone over, but as assistance was solicited from associations 
capable of rendering it, a length of time was unavoidably con- 
sumed in awaiting their contributions, and these again requir- 
ed deliberate consideration. As the sources whence these 
contributions proceeded are the pharmaceutical bodies of all 
the cities where such combinations exist, namely, of New 
York, Boston and Philadelphia, and particularly as most im- 
portant aid was afforded by the College of Pharmacy of the 
latter place, from which an amendment of the whole Phar- 
macopoeia, by a special committee, was obtained, the present 
work possesses the recommendation of being the production of 
both the bodies interested, the medical and pharmaceutical, 
and by both should therefore be assumed as authority. 
The general outlines adopted in the edition of 1830 have 
been preserved in the present ; thus the two great divisions 
into the Materia Medica and Preparations, the subdivisions 
