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.

    64/159 (page 64)
    known to the President of this Association. But. if the President of the Na- tioniil Convention, or liLs successor in oflice, should fail to reply, such failure shall be c(>nRtru<'d to mean acquiescence in this acMon. Rejtohfd. Fourth, That The Pliarinacopa>ia of the United States of Amer- ica' he h-reafter issued only by tlie authority of iliis Asi«K-iation : and that it be th'! only standard fo ■ tlni lu-iteria in-dica recognized by the medical profes- sion of the United States of America. In this country any assemblage has the right to pass a resolution like the first of these, a-ssutning possession of anything ; but such resolutions on paper le.ad to derision, and when put into practice to civil or criminal litigation. The Na- tional Convention is much the older biwly of the two ; the c )pyriiiht of the Phar- maeoptx^ia is iield in trust for it by the Committee of Revision, is then fore not merely property, but a trust property, and yet by resolution it is to he as.«umed by the younger a.ssociation, and the National Convention is to lie relieved from any fartlier act.s of owner.sliip, control, or management of the PharmacopaMA.'' The second resolution involves a curious misunderstanding. Out of the thirty- one organized bodies represented in the National Phannacopncial Convention of 1870, l)ut six or seven are entitled to send delegiites to The Americ:m Medical Association, and no college is permitted representation in The .V.ssociation: yet this Associ ition is asked to resolve, That tiie Medical Societies and CoUfgf$ through their delegates now present, etc. ; in other words, to stultify itself. Tlu' third resolution would seem to have no less originated in a misumlcr- standing. To the President of the National Pliarmac.ip<iMal Convention, or his succ 'ssor. was assigned the duty of calling the Convention together at the pre- scrilied time. He has had confided in him by a Convention of nearly a half- century's standing a trust most vital to it.s very e.vistence. By the acceptance of the oflice he accepted the trust, and is in honor bound as much to its fulfil- ment as though he had ratified it with an oath. No power on earth can free him from his plain duty. Yet The American ^tedical Association is to solemnly ask him to break faith in the high oflice conunitted to his care, and thereby to blot off its own name from the list of honorable bodies. The American Medical .Vssociation cannot morally or legally a.ssume iiroperty in the Plianuacopceia. The courts would not allow it even to use the name Uniteil States PharmacopaMa. If it really desire to assume control of our national slaiidard, let it not attempt it by dishonorable means, but let it form- ally a.sk the Convention of 1S80 to delegate its powers, and there allow the matter to rest for the present. If the Convention acci-de, The Association can take up the task; if it do not. The Association can consider the propriety of preparing a rival Pharmacopn'ia and entering upon the struggle for authority. It is scarcely possible that the President of the National Convention, or his miccessor, can he induced to prove ri'creant to the trust confided to him. It is possible that the Convention might resign its power to Tlie American Medical Association, but it is very improbable. The National Convention has the pres- tige of success, and neither individuals nor a-ssocialions are prone to yield power. In the present crisis this natural inclination would be strengthened b^' what would in the minds of many seem an imperative dut}-, not to allow of the risk of anarchy being produced by a doubtful experiment. The attem]it to substi- tute the Pliarmaci>|i(eia by a Pispensafory produced under the auspices of a popular assembly must be a doubtful experiment, and the inevitable result of ^the failure of this experiment must be anarchj', infinitely worse and infinitelj' more difflcult to reduce to order than that which existed previous to 1830. It