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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    and making a revision pcrbaps every five insteatl of ten years (subsequently purhaps e ven oftener tliau that), we should be able to keep within the covers of the Pliuriuacopceia notliiug but wliat lias been fully tried, fully known, and fully dcscribetl in det^iil. Such a revision would decimate the present lists, for there are many articles here which might be tbopped. Not that they are entirely useless, but that they are not appropriate articles to be retained in a pharmacopa-ia when they take up riMjm which might be given with greater advantage to the details of primary articles. If the Pharmacopana be so restricted, we should need soniLthing more; and my desigu embraces the idea that tiie authorities of the Pharmacopojia, whoever they may be, should issue au annual fasciculiLS, which should never be dignified with the standard force and authority given to the established Pharmacopa?ia, but be more ephemeral. A thing which w<iuld ex- pire at the end of each yciU', and contain the current information of the pre- vious yeiy. I would have this annual, however, published by the same authority which publishes the Pharmacopitia. Now, that annual might con- tain a great deal which would not be looked upon as suitable to be retaimtl or admitted in the Pharmacopeia proper. It might contain a description of all the novelties which come along—for instance, such an article as jalwandi, of which there was little or nothing known when it came into use—and it would have competent authority, !vs soon as anything of that kind was published, to send for the article, to put it upon trial, place it in the hands of pro]>er men after it hiis been properlj' prepared, i)ut it in the way of being us(\l in hospi- tals, and so get all the information possible and publish the results of the ob- servations in the ne.xt succeeding yi-ar. Tliis boak W()uld never exceed the Phai'macopccia in size, and it might be a mere fiisciculus for the first year or two. JI}' impression is that such a book a.s that would be really more useful, both to medicine and pluu'macj, than the Pharmaeopteia as it is. The Phar- macopana would still hi! essential and indispensable, because it is the standard; bui for obtaining current information, a work, such as the book I have de- scribed, would be more useful to physiciims and to the pharmacist than the Pharmacopa'ia itself. From it could be obtained information quite inappro- priate to a standard pharmacopteia. Within two years the necessary infor- mation could be obtained regarding any article that might be proposed as a therapeutical agent, which would either discard it entirely, or place it upon further trial, or iutroduce it into the Phanuaciipieia. At presi'ut all the novel- ties are in risk of being lost, or so perverted and e.xtoUed that they are drop- ped, or get into commercial hands and become used as proprietary medicines in one way or another. Such a book as I have described should be issued in a cheap form, and the copyright should pay for the labor expended upon it. At firet, there would probably be an expense to be met, perhaps some thousand dollars or so, to be obtained from some source for the purposes of its support; but the moment it is placed upon a reliable basis, such as will enable it to communicate valuable information to the physician and pharmacist, it would sell so as to abundantly pay everybody conuecled with it. The copyright of the Pharmacopaiia, and the book proposed, would be very valualile if the work was properly done, and would amply reward the labor which might be given. Now, how is the work to be done, and by what authority? Our friend, the President, has just said that the pharmacists and physicians should unite in