will guarantee to prove their circulation, but at the present time no association of advertisers appears to be willing to defray the necessary expenses."

The committee on legislation reported what had been done to promote the national trade-mark law. It was stated that no action was likely to be taken by the present Congress. The committee gave much attention to the pure food and drug bill now pending in Congress. The committee also stated that it would co-operate with the N. A. R. D. in its effort to repeal the stamp tax on medicinal preparations, perfumery, etc. From the report it is learned that the Proprietary Association very carefully watches State legislators, and fights all legislation likely to injure their interests. The report said that all bad bills had been defeated in New York and Massachusetts. Attention was also given to bills now pending in Iowa and some other States.

It was decided to hold the next meeting at Chicago, in September, co-incident to the annual meeting of the N. W. D. A. The next annual meeting of the Proprietary Association will be held in New York the first week in May, 1901.

The election of officers for the ensuing year resulted as follows: President, V. Mott Pierce; first

vice-president, E. C. DeWitt; second vice-president, H. L. Kramer; secretary, Joseph Leeming; treasurer, H. B. Harding. Executive committee-A. H. Beardsley, Alfred E. Rose, Thomas Doliber, Geo. A. Newman, C. I. Hood and H. M. Sharp.

May a Month of Conventions.-The pharmacists of this country can very appropriately point to May as the month of conventions. This is especially true of the present year. The month opened with the United States Pharmacopoeial convention at Washington, the date of which was fixed ten years ago. A convention of this importance naturally took precedence over all others, and many attended it who were obliged to forego the pleasure and profit of other meetings. The second week in May found the American Pharmaceutical Association in session at Richmond. The proximity of the meeting places and the arrangement of dates made it convenient for delegates to attend both conventions. On the other hand, some pharmacists felt that they could not be away from home for more than two consecutive weeks and were

obliged to return after the United States Pharmacopoeial meeting.

The Proprietary Association convened in New York, May 2 and 3. This interfered with the attendance at both Richmond and Washington, as many pharmacists were interested in all three conventions.

In addition to these meetings of national character, we find more than a dozen State associations scheduled for meetings during the month of May. As a rule, those who attend the A. Ph. A. are also prominent in local organizations, and we find the attendance at Richmond diminished on account of the co-incident State conventions.

Another condition which interfered with the attendance at both Washington and Richmond was the fact that, since the extension of college courses, the commencement exercises occur late in April or early in May. The Maryland College of Pharmacy re-arranged its course for the past session so that the graduating exercises could be held prior to the May meetings.

Thus, the pharmacists of the United States can say that when it rains it pours; or, when one convention is scheduled others occupy the same or approximate dates. Judging from the reports as received, all pharmaceutical meetings during May were fairly well attended and the transactions of a satisfactory character. The druggists who regretted that they could not be in two places at the same time must feel gratified that the meeting they attended was a successful affair. It was a mere accident that the American Pharmaceutical Association should convene during the same month as the United States Pharmacopoeial convention. It is questionable whether the attendance at either meeting was increased by the arrangement of dates so that the Richmond meeting would immediately follow the one in Washington. The next decennial meeting of the United States Pharmacopoeial convention is a long way off, and we will leave it to those interested ten years hence to decide the details of dates and locations for the conventions of 1910.

Horse Flesh, As a Food, is a very serviceable article. It is sold freely in the markets in France, Germany, Austria and Belgium, as well as several other foreign countries. From time to time we have evidence that it is also an article of commerce in the United States. Recently, the Board of Health of San Francisco discovered that horse flesh was being used by the sausage manufacturers of that city. They were prosecuted, not on account of any harmfulness of the flesh, but because they sold it for beef. The difference in price is considerable.

We are confident that the time will come when horses will be butchered in this country under the same provisions as those regulating the slaughter of cattle. The New York Medical Journal claims that horse flesh can be readily detected even in as small a proportion as 5 per cent when mixed with other flesh. The process is as follows: Twenty grammes of sausage, finely minced, are boiled from

a half hour to an hour in 100 cubic centimeters of water. The volume of water is then reduced by evaporation to thirty cubic centimeters; then the liquid is cooled and filtered. About ten cubic centimeters are tested with a few drops of the compound iodine solution (one part of iodine and twelve parts of potassium iodide in 100 parts of water). A fugitive reddish-violet coloration indicates the presence of horse meat. The re-agent must be added carefully, so that no excess is added, as this is apt to change the color to a reddish-brown.

Convention Rates on Railroad and steamship lines are not as easily obtained as they were a few years ago. The Boston member of the committee on transportation of the American Pharmaceutical Association reports that it is impossible to secure any concessions for the number of members who are likely to attend annual meetings from his district. The delegations to Washington and Richmond last month were much smaller than they would have been if the railroads had promptly granted an extension of time on tickets, so that delegates could attend both meetings without forfeiting the value of the return certificate.

It was only through united and persistent efforts from all officials of the two associations that the concession was finally made. The railroads gave their decision but a few days prior to the Washington convention-so late, in fact, that many pharmacists had given up hopes of obtaining the privilege and decided to remain at home. It is difficult to say just what the outcome of the present tendency of affairs will be. It looks now, however, as if the time would soon arrive when the railroads will refuse to recognize gatherings the size of the A. Ph. A. meetings as being entitled to convention rates.

The Extermination of Mosquitoes may become possible by the judicious use of petroleum. As explained in these, columns last month, the petroleum spreads out over the surface of the water, preventing the larva of the mosquito from reaching the atmosphere to obtain the necessary oxygen. Commenting on the use of petroleum for the extermination of this insect pest, a prominent merchant of West Africa gives his experience in that country. He says that, during fourteen months' stay in the petroleum fields in Apolonia, the five white men under him who had never been in that country before remained free from malaria, although working in stagnant swamps. He accounts for their freedom from malaria by the fact that the petroleum prevents the mosquitoes from propagating. The absence of these insects was noted at the time.

It is now becoming generally conceded that human beings only have malaria when infected by mosquitoes.

New York Has a New Pharmacy Law applying to the entire State and creating a new board of pharmacy consisting of fifteen members, which will be divided into three branches or sectional boards of five members each to replace the boards now in existence. The new law goes into effect January, 1901. It was signed by Governor Roosevelt, April 26.

There are now three boards of pharmacy-one operating in New York City, one in Erie County and one in the remainder of the State. The new law provides for a State Board of Pharmacy. The State is divided into three sections. The eastern (New York) section comprises New York, Kings, Queens, Nassau, Suffolk, Richmond and Westchester Counties; the western (Erie) section the counties of Erie, Niagara, Orleans, Genesee, Wyoming, Alleghany, Cattaraugus and Chautauqua, and the middle (Albany) section takes in the other counties of the State.

Chemical Industries in Germany are yielding good profits at least this is true of some of the more prominent ones. Farbwerke, formerly Meister, Lucius & Brüning, manufacturers of synthetic indigo, antitoxine, etc., made a gross profit of 7,182,322 marks last year, while the previous year netted 7,214, 179 marks.

Farbenfabriken, formerly Friedrick Bayer & Co., (phenacetine, etc.) made a profit, in 1899, of 3,400,000 marks against 3,270,000 marks in 1898.

Badische, aniline and soda fabrik (the largest establishment of this kind in the world, employing over 25,000 hands), made a clear profit of 8,978,652 marks.

But it must not be presumed that all of the chemical factories are making such fortunes. We also learn that some are showing a balance on the other side of the ledger. We notice one firm having lost 360,665 marks.

The Average Human Brain, according to Miss Helen Bradford Thompson, contains 9,200,000,000 nerve cells. These figures are based on mathematical calculations and are considered approximately correct by other authorities. The complexity of the cut-rate problem will require the exercise of all of these nerve cells by the person who works out a successful method of stopping cut rates, and at the same time please the manufacturer, the jobber, the retailer

and the customer.

The Subject of Malaria is attracting the attention of the scientific world. Under date of March 17, the Spanish Government ordered the Royal Academy of Medicine to prepare a report on the disease within two years. Now that the mosquito is found to be the common carrier of the disease, a new interest is added and a fond hope of controlling, if not eradicating, intermittent fevers.

Pursuant to Call, the eighth decennial revision convention was held in the City of Washington, May 2, 3 and 4. The new committee was appointed and is now at work. The association will soon be incorporated as the "United States Pharmacopoeia Revision Convention."

In Our Transportation Department for June appears a most interesting article from the pen of Mr. C. F. G. Meyer, on the Cullom bill. Our readers, no doubt, fully realize the importance of this measure and will find a great deal of "food for reflection" in the article.

U. S. P. REVISION.

The United States Pharmacopoeia Should Define a "Drop."-On page 376 of the MEYER BROTHERS DRUGGIST for December, 1899, appears an extended article on "The Number of Drops in a Gram and the Size of Medicine Droppers." The author, Dr. Wm. H. Seaman, of Washington, D. C., is very much in earnest in the work. He says: "The subject was brought to my attention in the preparation of a hospital formulary, and being a very busy man I did not consider all its bearings but assumed at first there was a fairly uniform size for medicine droppers. Further, I cannot see how the table in Remington's Pharmacy can be applied, since there are no statements that I have found as to the device used in dropping. Now, I find that the various prescription bottles in

DR. HORATIO C. WOOD, PRESIDENT U. S. P. CONVENTION.

common use give from nine to twenty-five drops to the gram, depending on the shape and size of the lip, and whether or not the bottle is full or partially full, and also that no one without training and care can deliver drops from a bottle at all, while any one can use a dropper with fair exactitude. Now, I desire to see the following insertion made in the Pharmacopoeia, on page XLV, fourth line from bottom, after "minims": It is recommended that when medicines are directed to be administered by drops that they be measured from a medicine dropper whose delivery end is three millimeters in external diameter and adapted to deliver twenty drops of distilled water to a gram at fifteen degrees Centigrade. The text of the French Codex of 1884, on this subject, is as follows: Celui qui est adopte comme compte-goutte normal consiste en un tube de verre termine par un ajutage ouverture capillaire, dont le diametre exterieur doit mesurer exactement trois millimetres. On considere l'ins instrument comme bien regle lorsqu' a la temperature de 15 vingt goutte d'eau distillee pesent 1 gramme a moins de 2 centigrammes pres.

"With this provision the drop would soon be a far more accurate measure, especially in the hands of the laity, than any other mode of measuring small quantities."

"The New Pharmacopoeia" is what the average pharmacist will call the eighth decennial revision of that standard work. The convention held at Washington the first week in May completed the arrangements for the preparation and publication of the volume.

The convention consisted of 207 delegates from various incorporated pharmaceutical and medical associations and colleges.

A committee of revision, consisting of twenty-five members and the president of the convention, was elected. A nominating committee with eighty-four members present named this committee of revision.

The general scope of the Pharmacopoeia was determined by the convention at large, and embodied the general principles to be followed in revising the Pharmacopoeia, which are understood as instructions to the committee.

We publish elsewhere in this issue of the MEYER BROTHERS DRUGGIST these instructions in full. It may be said in a general way that the revised Pharmacopoeia will be upon the same lines as the previous one. Among the few notable changes may be mentioned the introduction of average approximate doses for adults. These will be stated in the metric system with approximate equivalents in ordinary weights and measures. This question was hotly contested at the convention ten years ago which decided, by a small majority, not to publish doses. Sentiment in favor of them has gradually grown until the action at Washington last month was practically without opposition.

Synthetic preparations will be admitted to the revised Pharmacopoeia, but only when they are of definite composition, in common use by the medical profession and of such a nature that their identity, purity or strength can be determined.

Perhaps the most far-reaching instruction to the new committee is the one relating to limiting tests. The committee is instructed to make allowance for unavoidable innocuous impurities or variations due to the source or mode of preparation or to the keep ing qualities of the several articles. This means that the pharmacopoeial requirements must not be unreasonably severe. It will enable pharmacists in States having pure food and drug laws to easily live up to pharmacopoeial requirements.

It is difficult to surmise whether the new volume will be larger or smaller than its predecessor. In one particular, however, space will be saved, for general formulas are to be introduced in giving instructions for the preparation of fluid extracts, tinctures, etc., so far as the particular nature of the several drugs will permit. For a more detailed explanation of the rules and regulations under which the new committee will work, we refer our readers to the general principles published elsewhere in this issue.

4.

I. William Galt Motter, M. D., Washington, D. C., Committee. 2. Albert E. Ebert, Ph. M., Chicago, Trustee. 3 Edward Kremers, Ph. D., Madison, Wis., Committee. Virgil Coblentz, Ph. G., Ph. D., New York City, Committee. 5. H. M. Whelpley, Ph. G., M. D., St. Louis, Mo., Secretary of the Convention. 6. John Marshall, M. D., Philadelphia, Committee. 7. J. P. Remington, Ph. M., Philadelphia, Vice-Chairman of the Committee. 8. Charles Caspari, Jr., Ph. G., Baltimore, Committee. 9. E. H. Squibb, M. D., Brooklyn, Committee. 10. A. B. Stevens, Ph. G., Ann Arbor, Mich., Committee. II A. B Lyons, M. D., Detroit, Mich., Committee. 12. L. E. Sayre, Ph. M., Lawrence, Kan., Committee. 13. James M. Good, Ph. G., St. Louis, Mo., Committee. 14. Wilbur L. Scoville, Ph. G., Boston, Mass., Committee. 15. C. S. N. Hallberg, Ph. G., Chicago, Committee. 16. George F. Payne, Ph. G., M. D., Atlanta, Ga., Committee. 17. Oscar Oldberg, P. D., Chicago, Committee. 18. S. A. D. Sheppard, Ph. G., Boston, Trustee. George W. Sloan, M. D., Indianapolis, Trustee. 20. W. S. Thompson, Washington, D. C., Trustee. 21. Otto A. Wall, Ph. G., M. D., St. Louis, Second Vice-President of the Convention. 22. Horatio C. Wood, M. D., Philadelphia, President of the Convention. 23. Albert B. Prescott, M. D., Ann Arbor, Mich., First Vice-President of the Convention and member of the Committee. 24. W. M. Mew, M. D., Washington, Treasurer. 25. C. Louis Diehl, Ph. M., Louisville, Committee. 26. S. P. Sadtler, Ph. D., Philadelphia, Committee.

19.

The following officers and members were present at the Convention, with the exception of Dr. Rice, but were not present when the above photograph was taken: Chas. Rice, Ph. D., New York, Chairman of the Committee; A. R. L. Dohme, Ph. D., Baltimore, Secretary of the Committee; Reynold W. Wilcox, M. D., New York, Third Vice-President of the Convention and member of the Committee; N. S. Davis, Jr., M. D., Chicago, Fourth Vice-President and member of the Committee: Hobart A. Hare, M. D., Philadelphia, Committee; A. L. Langfelt, M. D., San Francisco, Fifth Vice-President; Walter S. Haines, M. D., Chicago, Committee; John J. Abel, M. D., Baltimore. Committee; Henry Kraemer, Ph. D., Philadelphia, Committee; Willis G. Gregory, Ph. G., M. D., Buffalo, Committee; Charles E. Dohme, Baltimore, Trustee.

The Revised U. S. P. will be moulded after the general pattern outlined in the list of instructions given the committee on revision. In addition to this list, a number of proposed instructions were voted down, the most prominent among them being one authorizing the introduction of the serums. Other propositions were referred to the committee without instructions, since they were considered as coming under the head of detail work rather than general principles. Here we may mention the adoption of a standard dropper as suggested by Dr. W. H. Seaman in a recent issue of this journal. The microscopical examination of powdered drugs is also in the hands of the committee. This matter was pushed by Dr. Albert Schneider, of Chicago, and Dr. H. H. Rusby, of New York.

There was also a feeling on the part of some members that the pharmacopoeia should be made to partake of the nature of a dispensatory. While these views

DR. CHAS. RICE, CHAIRMAN U. S. P. REVISION COMMITTEE.

were put forward in a forcible manner, they did not seem to meet with general approval. The introduction of doses, however, is looked upon as a step in this direction.

It is doubtful whether a pharmacopoeia will ever be made to include information on the subject of therapeutics or give space to the history of remedies. The same cry, "Make the Pharmacopoeia Popular," was raised ten years ago, and in a measure has been met by the American Pharmaceutical Association in its adoption of the National Formulary, which must be looked upon in reality as a companion to the U. S. P., although issued by an entirely distinct authority. It was with an idea of popularizing the pharmacopoeia that one member suggested the discarding of scientific Latin and Greek terms in the description of drugs and chemicals. As a point in illustration he mentioned such words as those used in describing the shape of leaves. It was pointed out by other speakers that these words are really a part of the English language and preferable to any substitutes which might be suggested.

General Principles to be Followed in Revising the Pharmacopoeia.-In accordance with the instructions of the convention of 1890, the committee of revision created by this body herewith presents a draft of a plan for revising the Pharmacopoeia of 1890.

1. Scope of the Pharmacopoeia.-The committee of revision is authorized to admit into the Pharmacopoeia any product of nature of known origin; also any synthetized product of definite composition which is in common use by the medical profession, the identity, purity, or strength of which can be determined. No compound or mixture shall be introduced if the composition or mode of manufacture thereof be kept secret, or if it be controlled by unlimited proprietary or patent rights.

article

2. Doses.-After each pharmacopoeial (drug, chemical, or preparation) which is used or likely to be used internally or hypodermically, the committee is instructed to state the average approximate (but neither a minimum nor maximum) dose for adults, and, where deemed advisable, also for children-the metric system to be used and the approximate equivalent, ordinary weights or measures, inserted in parenthesis. It is to be distinctly understood that neither this convention nor the committee of revision created by it intends to have these doses regarded as obligatory on the physiciau or as forbidding him to exceed them whenever in his judgment this seems advisable. The committee is directed to make a distinct declaration to this effect in some prominent place in the new Pharmacopoeia.

3. Nomenclature.-It is recommended that changes in the titles of articles at present fficial be made only for the purpose of insuring greater accuracy, or safety in dispensing. In the case of newly admitted articles, it is recommended that such titles be chosen as are in harmony with general usage and convenient for prescribing; but in the case of chemicals of a definite composition a scientific name should be given, at least as a synonym.

4. Assay Processes.-The committee is instructed to append assay processes to as many of the potent drugs and preparations made therefrom as may be found possible, provided that the processes of assay are reasonably simple (both as to methods and apparatus required) and lead to fairly uniform results in different hands. As regards the products of such assays, tests of identity and purity should be added wherever feasible. Physiological tests for determining strength should not be introduced by the committee.

5. Purity and Strength of Pharmacopoeial Articles.-The committee is instructed to revise as carefully as possible the limits of purity and strength of the pharmacopoeial chemicals and preparations for which limiting tests are given. While no concession should be made towards a diminution of medicinal value, allowance should be made for unavoidable, innocuous impurities or variations due to the particular source or mode of preparation, or to the keeping qualities of the several articles. In the case of natural products the limits of admissible impurities