II. A Comparison of some of the National Pharmacop ias
Authors: D. J. Leech
Journal: BMJ (1895)

most Continental States, and in America, formularies have been published setting forth the composition and, to a greater or less extent, the method of preparation of the medicinal substances ordinarily used, in order that the drugs prescribed by medical men and supplied to the public may always have the same composition.From time to time all these formularies or Pharmacopceias have been revised, and alterations and additions have been made in accordance with the growth of medical and pharmaceutical knowledge.There has been, in fact, in the various Pharmacopa?ias a process of evolution.At the present time it may 'he of some interest to compare the works resulting from this evolution with each other and with the British Pharmacopoia, which has likewise undergone periodic re- vision.The earlier formularies were not recognised legally, but now in most countries laws have been passed for the pro- duction and periodic revision of a Pharmacopjia.The authority responsible for carrying out such laws is by no means the same in all States.In France the Ministers of Public Instruction and of Agriculture and Commerce nominate a commission for each new edition of the Pharmaacopwia.In Germany the care of the Pharmacopada devolves by law on a commission consist- ing of members of the Imperial Health Department and others selected by the Imperial Chancellor.In Switzerland the Federal Council itself appoints a suitable commission for the production of a new edition of the Pharmacopeia.In all these, and indeed in most other European countries, the Pharmacopoeia receives the direct sanction of the Govern- ment, or one of its departments, before it is officially promulgated.In England, although no definite sanction is re- quired, the Pharmacopeia as issued according to the Act of Parliament by the General Medical Council is recognised as the legal authority; and in America, where the Pharmacopeia originates in the profession itself, it seems to receive no legal sanction save that it is adopted as a standard of authority by the Government and by a number of the States.In early times the Pkarmacopwia was almost entirely the work of physicians, who were doubtless aided in details by apothecaries or pharmacists, though the aid of the latter was not always recognised.But the increasing separation of pharmacy and medicine and the specialisation of the former, together with the fact that the Pharmacopoeia as a State production has an aspect other than medical, led to the pharmacist being joined to the physician in the production of the Pharmanocoywia'.The British Pharmacopoeia of 1867 was, indeed, prepared by two able representatives of pharmacy under the direction of Sir Richard Quain and four other members of the General Medical Council; and the Swiss Pharmacopowia, before the issue of the present edition, was the work of the Pharmaceutical Society of Switzerland.But in other countries mixed com- mittees of medical men and pharmacists have been commissioned for the compilation of the National Pharmnacoepia.The present French Codex, for example, issued in 1884, was drawn up by a Commission of 22, of whom 13 were pharmacists, 6 professors of the Medical Faculty of Paris, and 3 special