The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-08-28

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 are no longer regarded as valuable. They have already become obsolete. Absinthe is one. For other omissions there is a different, but perfectly intel ligible, cause. What was formerly known as alcohol deodOratum" is dropped simply because the strength of
 alcohol is now brought up to that of the other fluid, and the 'deodoratum' no longer has any use. "Arnica flow ers'' are needless because ''arnica" alone is sufficient. A compound in which cOlchicum root played part is discarded, but one based on the seed of colchicum is retained.
 Another group of changes relates to
 the strength of few drugs. The full
 list of substances to the use of which official sanction is given contains up- ward of eight hndred itenus. Regard ing the vast majority of these, no al-.
 teration is proposed. Over a score are now to be more concentrated than be- fore. The tinctures of hubbard, cinna-
 mon, capsicum, cantharides and a few other well known drugs will hereafter need to be twice as strong as before in order to conform to the new stand ard. The strength of the tinctures of digitalis, gelsemium, hyoscyamus and some others will in the future be only two-thirds that formerly required. The reduction in the case of acouite is more conspicuous, being in the ratio of 2.S5 to l. In the case of twenty-eight more drugs, the standard of strength has hitherto been varied from one cause or another. It now is definitely fixed. It is said that the changes have been made so that the preparations of this country will be uniform with those of Europe. They have been made at the suggestion of an international congress in Brussels in 1902, and the United States is the first country to act on those recommendations. An American tourist can now take with him to Eu- rope the prescription of his own physi- clans, and feel he is getting exactly what he ought to have if a foreign pharmacist fills it for, him. It will be wise to remember. too, that the ''phar- macopoeia" is meant primarily as a guide to the physician, and only incl dentally tor not at alp for the random retail purchaser. The alterations now made in the strength of those few arti- cles, therefore, will affect only the quantity prescribed. Nobody is cheat ed, and it is doubtful whether even the uninitiated would ever know the differ ence if an unsuccessful attempt to cre- ate a sensation over this exceedingly 1ivV1ffbH cF 1os st ho1 not been made.
 What seems to be a new feature of the new edition is table in which the normal, or safe, dose of each drug is specified. The committee was instruct ed to give average" doses for adults, but not to add minimum or maximum doses. The convention which imposed that duty on the committee was care full to say that 1t did not intend to have the doses here mentioned regarded ob- ligatory by the physician. The latter should feel free to exceed the limit given whenever in his judgment it was advisable to do so.
 No advance in pharmaceutical sci- ence in the last fifteen or twenty years has been more conspicuous than the discovery and adoption of methods of testing the purity and strength of drugs. A vast amount of dlsappoint- ment has been experienced by skilled practitioners over failures to secure an- ticipated results from their prescrip- tions. Drugs in specified quantities
 would sometimes work beautifully. Sometimes they would not. The fault, there was much reason to fear, was not with the prescription, but with the par
 ticular grade of drug employed by the pharmacist who filled it. Now, assay"
 processes have lately been applied to more than fifty important preparations.
 It has not yet been possible to find suitable tests for all drugs, but the gains already made afford occasion for profound congratulation.
 Over no question considered by the committee on revision has a wider dif- ference of opinion existed among out
 siders than the wisdom of giving off, cial indorsement to patent medicines"
 For the present that action has not been taken. Some future revision may admit limited number of proprietary preparations, but the "pharmacopoeia"
 that goes Into force next month shuts them all out. It is a well known fact that physicians advise patients to buy these things at times, but fatal acci- dents occur now and then in conse- quence. The druggists who handle such
 goods discover the fact eventually; and the octors who sanction them may do c1 io hCVNnppI YN,stp a of the medical profession that there
 must be no secrets about the drugs 1t prescribes Physicians must have full knowledge of the constituents and pro- perties of the articles they recommend. The revisers of the United States Pharmacopoeia" have felt under an ob- ligation to maintain that principle New York Tribune.
 
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