Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-04-13
PERIL FOR THE SICK.
Pharmacist Sees Danger in
Rejection of Certain Drugs.
THREATEN NATIONAL LAW
Says Plan Of Revising Pharmaco-
peia Would Destroy Power to
Enforce Standards.

NEW YORK. April 13.-Declaring that
a group of influential and minded
physicians, representing about 20 per
cent of the medical profession, are en-
gagged in a mistaken attempt to deprive
the United States Pharmacopeia of stand
ard tests for strength and purity of drugs
that enter into the prescriptions of the
majority OF PHYSICIANS in this country,
DR.. Henry II. Rusby. dean of the College
Of Pharmacy of Columbia University,
federal expert on drugs at this port and
member of the revision committee Of the
present Pharrnacopeia, said Yesterday
that if these doctors persist in their pur-
pose at it's coming pharmacopeial re-
vision in Washington May 10 their action
will expose the sick of the nation to con-
slant and deadly peril. DR.. Rusby's state
ment, in part. follows:
"A small but exceedingly influential
group of physicians. representing per-
haps 20 per cent of their profession, In
sists that in the coming pharmacopeial
revision drugs which they disapprove, no
matter how widely they are used in
prescriptions by the majority Of doctors
Of the country, shall be thrust out of the
book CT recognized standards, thus de-
priving the government of power to re-
quire that they eb Of definite purity and
strength.
The motive which urges these physi-
clans in their course of incredible folly
md danger is in itself commendable.
They would pl esent in the Pharmacopeia
brief and select list of what they con-
siGer to be the best medicaments, provid-
ing standard and legal tests of strength
and purity for these alone, with the In
tent to Influence the entire profession
toward c:1nrsins and using them exclu-
sively N their practice
Have Favor1te Prescriptions.
But medical men should not decide
what drugs are to have legally enforce
able standards Each doctor knows about
diseases and about his favorite prescrip-
| tons. But. as compared with the wide
range Of materia medica, nearly every
physician runs in little round. He has
his own list Of indictments and pays no
attention to others-knows little and cares
less about Them Another doctor has an
other list Physicians of one locality
| tend to approve one general class Of med
icines, and to disapprove others favored
by physicians of other localities.
The dropping of standard drug from
the Pharmacopeia has never even slight
| 1y discouraged its use. Nor has the ad-
| mission to the official book of some most
valuable drugs. such as ignatIa and Chi
nese blister beetles, encOllra sed their use.
But all drugs that are already in rather
more than local use are, according to
we'll established precedent. admitted at
each succeeding revision, so that they
may be given legal guarantee of purity
ana strength.
This group OF physicians would ex-
clude the whole class of drugs Of SOCIAL
ed secondary medicinal value But sec
ondary drugs may be dangerous in mix
lures or aduHerated. It is the phar-
macist's chief duty to see that physicians
have not, inadvertently or ignorantly,
written prescriptions of drugs that are
| incompaunles, thus endangering the lives
of patients. Doctors cannot be expected
always to know the details of compound
| ing drugs. One of the most active and
dangerous classes of medical constituents
| is the alkaloids. Mixed with the sec
ondary drug tannin which appears in a
| great majority of indictments. alkaloids
| will not stay in solution. If mixed with
strychnine. all this powerful poison sinks
to the bottom. The patient gets no
| strychnine in the first dose. and no ben
| eft; then he gets the benefit Of the whole
| body of poison at once. Tannin should be
| standardized and distinguished as an In
compatible
Physicians Should Not Control.
Physicians who. with rare exceptions,
are totally unacquainted with the ply
steal and chemical tests Of their own
nnediraueuts Sho11ld not control tho cco,