Shall we have the United States Pharmacopeia up to date and of scientific and therapeutic value, or shall it be a book of ancient drug lore intermixed with drugs of real value?
It is now nearly three years since the Pharmacopeial Convention of 1910, and what has been accomplished? Many of the drugs which have been approved have already been announced, and, as it has wisely been determined that a subject of such wide, almost universal, interest as the United States Pharmacopeia should not be made a secret affair—in other words, that its decisions should be public, what follows is not a breach of confidence. The subject, in every detail, is one of public interest, and, therefore, should be of public knowledge.
In this age of exposure of "patent-medicine" frauds, and the age of education as to the danger of some drugs, the uselessness of others, and the limitations of