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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    of discord involving money values and entangling alliances. The Association was of a rather social character and met for the discas- sion of scientific subjec ts from year to year in a friendlv, pleasant way tliat was incompatible with snch subjc-ets as this, cxcejit so far as to see that somebody else attended to them properly. He was so thoroughly convinced of the inappropriateness of this subject to this Association that he moved that it W indefinitely postponed, and his motion was carried by a large majority. It is very unfortunate that the two l)rief addresses by which such a subject was so signally defeated were not put on record, but so it is, for not one of the ri'j)orters took them, and the medical profes- sion of tlie United Stales, in the only representative body of that profession, has distinctly refused to consider the interests of the profession in tlie Pharm.acopa'ia even to the extent of ajipoiniing a comniittee on llie subject. The question is,Wliat is the true under- lying cause of this action ? Is it a want of interest in the materia mcdica ; or carelessness or ignorance of its true condition and of tlie issues involved ? Or is it not ratlier tliat tlie wrong man liappened to take up the subject ami pi>'sent it in some wrong or unwise way, and tiieret'oiv that it is the man and his mistakes that are con- demned and rejected and not the subject. Hut if this be so, he was invited to be heard on the subject and was then suppressed without being fully heard, and his subject was suppressed with him. Under tlie circumstances above narrated, it seems but fair to the subject that it should sutler as little as possible from either the unfavorable presentation, or the unfavorable reception which it has met with at the hands of the only representative body of the pro- fession at tlie last meeting, in contrast witii the f;ivorable reception at the meeting of 1876, and, tiierefore, tlie writer has tliouglit it best to republish here what has been published in oj^jiosition to this movement for reform, and follow these by the rejoinder which the last meeting of Tlie American Medical Association refused to hear or consider. Several societies took action in favor of the movement, and some articles appeared in the medical journals also favoring some change, if not favoring the ]>lan jtroposed; but it is not neces- sary to reproduce these, as it is only the action in opposition to the movement to which the rejoinder was made. This course will place the whole matter before those of the medical and piiarmaceutical iirofessioiis who may choose to read it, willioul any more cost than that of the time given to it; and will place the mater fairly on record for future reference, since time will doubt- less show whether the recent action of The American Medical Association has been wise or not.