THE PHARMACOPEIA, ITS HISTORY AND ITS IMPORTANCE TO THE MEDICAL PROFESSION

The importance of the next Pharmacopeial Convention should be thoroughly understood by all medical societies and physicians. These conventions, as well as the national Pharmacopeia, originated in a proposition submitted to the Medical Society of the County of New York by Dr. Lyman Spalding in 1817. Dr. Spalding proposed that the United States be divided into four districts—northern, middle, southern and western—and that each district should hold a convention of delegates from the medical societies and schools situated within it, to formulate a pharmacopeia. The four district pharmacopeias were to be taken to a general convention to be held at Washington, composed of delegates from the four districts. From the district pharmacopeias the delegates were to compile a national pharmacopeia. This plan was adopted, the district convention for New England being held in Boston and the convention for the middle states in Philadelphia, June 1, 1819. No conventions were held