Los Angeles herald., 1909-12-19

! lH9L~r. III the United states pldIiidCO
| ~ HzE poeia, by which standard all
| lM MI American pharmacists and
| lEA N physicians are governed, VIII
! lk9REa be accomplished by the
! United States pharmacopoeial eonVeh-
| ton which will meet in Washington on
| May Il. The committee on revision Is
now at work on this important task
which will affect, directly or indirectly
! every citizen of the nation. The inl-
! tials "U. S. p" signify that a certain
drug or preparation has behind 1t the
authority of the United States phar-
macopoeia, from the decisions of whlSh
/ there Is no appeal in the world of med
icine The revision now being accom-
plished will stand for ten years. and by
! its rulings every physicians prescrlp-
| ton for u decade will be regulated.
The committee on revision has been
at work for many months gathering
data upon which the new edition of
! the pharmacopoeia will be based.
! There has been some discussion IN
medical circles about the way this COM
mittee ought to do business. Tho COM
mittee, supported by a certain element
thinks that 1t ought to consider the
changes necessary, gather all the In
| formation possible tending to show the
adVisability or inadvisability of such
changes, weigh it all carefully and
! then submit its report to the eonNen-
tion for. adoption in whole or in part
! The other element believes that not
even committee on revision of the
! pharmacopoeia is infallible, and advo-
| Gates publicity in the medical and
drug journals for the changes recon-
mended in order that there may be
! full opportunity to critiClse and sug-
gest before the report is made up. The
committee, through its chairman, an
! swerS that such a course would be let
| ting down the bars to an intermina-
| BILE discussion which would serve no
| good purpose. The others respond
! that the committee would be the sole
! Judge of when the discussion should
end and would have full power to ac-
| cept any suggestion or reject them aS
The United States pharmacopoeial
| convention is made up of members who
are appointed delegates from all the
medical schools, schools of pharmacy
| and medical associations of the United
| States. There are certain rules gov
| erning the selection of these delegats,
but it provided that a full representa-
| tion of tn best medical thought of the
nation may be had. When the conven-
tion completes its labors the results
will be final there Is no court of ap-
peal. It's verdict is final and fixed.
There has been much striving after
an international pharmacopoela bind
ing upon all civilized nations alike. But
| the uliIlCuilN OF ItdtlllI6 IL COllAAlOli
basis of action has been so great that
every effort to get an International
pharmacopoeial convention with power
to act has fallen to the ground, and so
every nation has its own standard.
The nearest approach made to an In
ternational medicine standard Is the
work of the 1906 conference at Brussels,
where accredited delegates from all
! civilized countries met for the con-
sideration of a uniform standard for
all potent or highly poisonous drugs.
Forty-nine such drugs came under the
purvlew Of the convention, and an in
ternational standard or strength and
preparation was devised 1t was
agreed that each of these drugs should
be designated in futre pharmacopoeias
! by their Latin names. Among them
were digitals. belladonna, strychnine,
arsenic and other familiar poisons.
1t was also agreed that none OF these
| heroic" drugs should ever be prepared
| in the form of a medicinal wine; all
tinctures are to be a 10 per cent solu-
tion and all fluid extracts 100 per cent.
One would scarcely think of a medi-
cine dropper being a matter of inter-
national agreement, yet II was so at
the Brussels convention. 1t is impor-
! tant in the compounding of prescrip-
tions containing these heroic poisons
that every drop shall be the same size,
no matter whether the prescription is
being filled at Singapore or New York
| city. Therefore q world standard
dropper was agreed upon. With a
temperature of 10 degrees centigrade
It must drop twenty drops OF distilled
water TO the gramme.
The delegates from the United States
| had no authority to bind the United
| States to carry out the provisions of
| the agreement of the Brussels conven-
tion, so they declared that they ac-
cepted it with the proviso that the gov
ernment should be required only to
use its influence TO get the articles OF
the agreement incorporated in the next
published pharmacopoeia- Thus will
/ the government for the first time in
the history of pharmacopoelal reyisions
in the United States be a party to It,
| even TO the extent of using its infu-
| ence in some particulars. 1t is true
that certain government bureaus have
| heretofore taken a part in these mat
| ters. but it was more the action of the
| individuals than of the government it
self. The present pharmacopoela is the