The American Medical Association and the United States pharmacopoeia / a reprint of the pamphlets of H.C. Wood, Alfred B. Taylor, the Philadelphia County Medical Society, and the National College of Pharmacy ; with a rejoinder addressed to the professions of medicine and pharmacy of the United States, by Edward R. Squibb.

  • E. R. Squibb
Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The American Medical Association and the United States pharmacopoeia / a reprint of the pamphlets of H.C. Wood, Alfred B. Taylor, the Philadelphia County Medical Society, and the National College of Pharmacy ; with a rejoinder addressed to the professions of medicine and pharmacy of the United States, by Edward R. Squibb. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    the Surgeon-General of the Navy, each to appoint one member, and the presi- dent of The American Phamiaciutical Association to appoint two nicniKTS. Should eight be considered a better number for this council, or an}- nunilH?r greater tliau five or less than eight, say six for example, then this Association to appoint the other members. It should be aimed to establish a wise and fair balance of interest in such a council, and the .iVrmy and Navy appointments to it would not only be for the purpose of completing its nationality, by giving the General Government its appropriate voice in the matter, but would be for the purpose of bringing into it well educjited men free from all bias. As the meet- ings of tliis council would have to be frequent during the general revisions, and perliap.s two or three times a year for the supplementary fasciculi, and as the members would have to educate themselves to the special work, it would per- haps be better that the council should be small and compact, and live in adja- cent cities. This council, charged with the entire work, should be authorized to employ one or two editors, or secretaries; perhaps two during the general n'visions, and one permanently. These shoidd be experts competent to do all the detail ■work under the direction of the council, and should submit the prepared work at the meetings of the council. Tliese officers of the council should Ih» liberally paid for their services, but should have no vote in the council, and perhaps one of them should be permanently employed entirely and solely in the inlen st of the PlinrmacopnMa, under the absolute direction and control of the council. There should l)e no salaries paid to the council at first, but actual travel- ing exjM'u.se.^ should be paid. And all e.vpert labor necessary to the work should be liherall}' paid, and the best experts only should Ik- employeil. The co]iyriglit of the PliainiaeopaMa is a valuable one, and should an annual vol- ume be issued it woukl be still more valuable, so that it is highly iimlmble that the income from this source would l>e abundant to pay all expenses. And in order to cheapen the book as far as possible to the medical imd pharmaceu- tical public, the copyright should be placed at a price that would just meet all reasonable expenses AMiat the copjTight has yieldeil hitherto, or what it was ■worth, could never be known, because it was always given arbitrarily to one publishing house, which house declined to give any information upon this point. Should the copyright be offered to a properly contmlled competition it doubtless could be made to pay liberally all the expenses necess.ary to having the work well done, and well kept up to the progress of the current materia nu'dica. Should sueh a eouneil be able to meet and org>anize in the latter part of 1878, a revision might be published in 1880, thus shortening this interval by two or three ye.ars, and making a gain that seems very desirable. The final resolution aims at having this subject fully and widely discussed, both by the medical and pharmaceutical public, and it is hoped that the medi- cal and pharmaceutieal journals will spread the matter thoroughly and discuss it temperately, and that the medical and pharmaceutical orgjinizations through- out tlie land will give it their most serious consideration—a consideration com- mensurate witli its grave importance ; for there is probably no subject where hasi}-, inunature action is more to 1)C deprecated, or where a wise deliberation is more necessary- to the welfare of the single inseparable interest which em- braces the arts of medicine and pharmac)-. The President of this .iVssociation for 1877 is pretty well known to have