PHARMACY

the international congresses of pharmacy, held at intervals from 1865 to 1913, brought the pharmacists of various countries together and afforded oppor- tunity for the discussion of questions of international impor- tance. a considerable amount of time and effort was expended in the endeavour to produce an international pharmacopoeia and to ensure that all medicinal preparations should be the same, no matter in what country they were prescribed. the at- tempt failed, but it paved the way for the adoption of useful international regulations. tl i. international progress the congress held in paris in 1900 recommended that a compara- tive table should be prepared showing the difference in the strength of medicaments bearing the same name in different pharmacopoeias; that the table should be distributed to medical and pharmaceutical authorities with the request that the possibility of unifying the strength should be considered; and that the belgian government be asked to convene a conference of accredited delegates from various nations with a view to arriving at a generally acceptable conclusion. this conference met in sept. 1902 and issued a list of preparations upon which agreement as to strength had been reached. an inter- national agreement embodying this list was signed in 1906 by the representatives of 18 nations and, substantially, all the decisions contained in it have been observed in the new issues of the pharma- copoeias of the signatory nations subsequent to that date. a similar conference was held in paris in 1925 to revise some of the decisions of the first conference and to take further steps towards the unification of the pharmacopoeia! formulas for potent drugs and their preparations. thus very important progress has been made towards international uniformity, at least in such drugs and prepa- rations as most require tt. the roth international congress held at brussels in 1910 decided to establish a federation internationale pharmaceutique for the protection of pharmacy as a profegsion and as an applied science, ‘the federation was established in 1912 at the hague with prof. van itallie and dr, hofman the first president and secretary respectively. twenty-four national socicties of pharmacy are now included in it, although austria, denmark, germany, hungary and russia have retired since the world war. the last meeting of the international congress of pharmacy was held at the hague in 1913. the federa- tion internationale pharmaceutique has replaced it and has held meetings in 1922-3-4-5. among the subjects discussed were pharma- ceutical education, pharmaceutical nomenclature, pharmaceutical proprietary preparations, and the unification of the methods of assay. modern pharmacy and science-—the demands made upon the scientific knowledge and technical skill of the pharmacist have continually increased as shown by successive editions of the british, united states and other pharmacopocias. the definition of the drugs has become more precise; tests of identity, limits of impurity, methods of assay have been introduced, and the use of the microscope required for the examination of many vegetable drugs. the introduction into medical practice of countless synthetic chemicals, of such organotherapeutical substances as the thyroid gland, pituitrin, etc., and of various vaccines and sera has imposed upon pharmacists the necessity of special study in order to understand them. the same may be said of the x-rays, and of the vitamins, the latter, in an impure form, being used in the form of compressed tablets or of capsules. hypodermic injections are now commonly supplied sterilised and in ampoules, and the pharmacist must therefore be ac- quainted with the principles of sterilisation and with the action upon sensitive alkaloids of the heat used and the alkalinity of the glass of which the ampoules have been made. the qualifications of the pharmacist.—in addition, therefore, to a knowledge of chemistry and botany as applied to pharmacy the pharmacist must be an expert microscopist. he must keep himself informed as to the new developments of therapeutics pharmacy and must be competent tosupply such medicines as the physician may prescribe. disinfection and hygiene also come within his purview. to ensure his competency the federation inter- nationale pharmaceutique agreed that the following subjects should find a place in the studies of the pharmaceutical student: chemistry (analytical, biological, physiological and pathological), pharmacy (chemical and galenical), pharmacognosy, microgra- phy, toxicology, hygiene, legislation, pharmacology, botany, microbiology, mathematics, crystallography, disinfection, sterili- sation and optics—a somewhat formidable list. modern developments—developments in the treatment of diseases and in the nature and quality of the remedial agents required, which are the outcome of scientific research, have a direct bearing upon pharmacy. barger, dale, carr, stoll and others have shown that the important drug, ergot, contains two extremely powerful alkaloids, ergotoxine and ergotamine, upon which its activity chiefly depends, accompanied by various amines such as tyroamine and histamine, which possess a sub- sidiary efficacy. the two alkaloids are soluble in alcohol but insoluble in water and are easily converted into two inactive substances from which they can be regenerated. these discover- ies opened the way to a rational galenical preparation of ergot which has proved very satisfactory. for a long time the group of oxymethylanthraquinone drugs, which includes a number of purgative drugs such as rhubarb, cascara sagrada, etc., had baffled investigators as the crystalline oxymethylanthraquinones or their glucosides failed to explain, quantitatively at least, the action of the drugs. maeder has isolated from elder buckthorn bark the glucoside glucorhamnin in which two sugar groups are present. the laxative action of glucofrangulin is such that the amount present in the drug corresponds to the activity of the latter. probably similar glucosides will be found in other members of the group. kiefer, working upon cape aloes, showed that the resins previously con- sidered inactive were, on the contrary, strongly purgative and isolated the substance to which the griping action was due and so made an important step towards a rational preparation of aloes. bourquelot showed that many enzymes possess a syn- thetical as well as analytical action and prepared a number of synthetical glucosides and demonstrated the possibility of producing in the laboratory an entirely new class of compounds. stabilisation of drugs —pharmacists have long desired to make from drugs galenical preparations which should contain the active constituents in the condition in which they exist in the plant. goris and arnould made an important step towards solving this problem by proving that the caffeine in fresh kola nuts exists in combination with kolatin, a combination which is broken up by an oxidase present in the fresh nuts. this oxidase can be ren- dered inactive by steam or alcohol vapour and the combination then remains unaltered when the nuts are dried and preparations made from them. such treatment, or ‘ stabilisation,” of a drug will probably be extensively adopted. there is no doubt that, as in the case of kola nuts, the stablised drug will frequently possess a therapeutic action different from the drug that has not been stabilised, and investigations along this line are being attempted. medicinal plants—during the war large quantities of medicinal plants were collected in great britain, partly wild, partly cultivated. attempts to place the cultivation upon a satisfactory footing failed, owing to the difficulty of obtaining assistance for the young industry. in france the government afforded every aid, and under the direction of perrot the industry is rapidly growing and much information is being collected as to the effects of soil, manures, etc., necessary to produce the best results. in the united states considerable attention has been devoted to selection experiments with drug plants,and marked progress has been made towards the production of the most suitable strains. the extremely high price of santonin led to a search for other sources of that important vermifuge. greenish and pearson showed that artemisia brevifolia, which grows in abundance in northwest india, contained sufficient santonin to make it a possible source of that substance. van der wielan pharmacy and van laren have cultivated in holland a species of artemisia which also contains santonin, so that cheaper supplies of the drug are only a question of time. wallis and mowat have studied the characters of the genus and thrown much light on the botanical source of the santonica of commerce. wallis has also devised a satisfactory method for the quantitative ceter- minations by means of the microscope, a problem to which much attention had been given. ii. conditions in great britain the poisons and pharmacy act of 1908 allowed a body corporate, and in scotland a firm or partnership, to carry on the business of a pharmaceutical chemist or chemist and druggist provided that the business, so far as it related to the keeping, retailing and dispensing of poisons, was under the control of a registered pharmaceutical chemist or chemist and druggist. in the second place powers were given to the pharmaceutical society to divide the qualifying examination into two parts and to re- quire candidates for the examination to produce satisfactory evidence that they had received a sufficient preliminary practical training in the subjects of the examination. before the necessary by-laws and regulations could be framed the society was involved in investigations and discussions pre- liminary to the national insurance acts of 1911 and 1913 by which the supply of drugs and medicines to insured persons was restricted to persons, firms and bodies corporate entitled to carry on the business of a chemist and druggist under the pharmacy acts of 1868 and 1908, thus admitting for the first time the important principle that the proper function of the physician is to diagnose and prescribe, and that of the pharmacist to supply the drugs and medicines so prescribed. educational system in great britain.—in 1920 the by-laws and regulations necessary for carrying the provisions of the act of 1908 into effect were drawn up. they come into full force at dates varying from feb. 1 1927 to aug. 1 1929 and may be briefly summarised as follows:— before presenting himself for examination the candidate must have been registered as a student of the pharmaceutical society for which purpose he must have passed one of a number of entrance examinations ranging from the junior local examination of cambridge or oxford to the matriculation examination of the university of lon- don. after registration he may proceed to the preliminary scientific examination, for which attendance at an approved systematic course of instruction of at least 440 hours in chemistry, botany and physics is necessary. having passed this, or one of several alternative ex- aminations, he will have to decide whether he will be content with passing the chemist and druggist qualifying examination or aim at the higher qualification by training for the pharmaceutical chemist qualifying examination. in the former case, when giving notice, he must produce a declaration that he has been trained under the direct supervision of a pharmacist in the dispensing and compounding of medicines for 4,000 hours spread over not less than two years in a pharmacy or in the dispensary of a hospital or similar institution approved by the council. he must also have attended an approved systematic course of at least 720 hours in pharmacy, pharmaceutical chemistry, pharmacognosy and forensic pharmacy. , if the candidate elects to proceed from the preliminary scientific examination to the pharmaceutical chemist qualifying examination, then he must be trained for at least 2,000 hours in a pharmacy or hospital and have attended an approved systematic course of at least 1,600 hours in botany, chemistry, pharmacognosy, pharmacy and forensic pharmacy. these statutory examinations are conducted by the pharmaceutical society. the university of london has instituted the degree of bachelor of pharmacy in the faculty of medicine. to obtain this degree the candidate must have passed the matriculation examination of the university or an examination that would be accepted by the university in lieu of matriculation. at the intermediate examination in science, the subjects of botany, chemistry, physics and zoology or general biology are taken. for the final examina- tion the course of study includes botany, chemistry, pharmacog- nosy and pharmacy and extends over two years. the candidate who has obtained the degree and wishes to practise pharmacy under the pharmacy acts must pass, in addition, an examination conducted by the pharmaceutical society in forensic pharmacy and must also have been trained for at least 2,000 hours in compounding medicines under a registered pharmacist in a 107 pharmacy or in an approved hospital or similar institution. he will then be entitled to be placed upon the register of pharma- ceutical chemists. he can also proceed to other university degrees. the universities of manchester and glasgow also con- fer the degree of b.sc. with pharmacy as one of the subjects, but these degrees cannot at present be utilised for the purpose of registration. thus, whereas in 1920 there was no compulsory curriculum of any kind, the entrant into pharmacy will hereafter undergo what is practically a two years’ approved systematic course of training for the lower qualification and a three years’ for the higher; in addition, if he has matriculated, university degrees are open to him. this achievement places the pharmaceutical student in great britain on a level with those of most other countries. the pharmaceutical society has the power of according or with- holding approval of the schools or institutions desirous of train- ing candidates as well as of the courses given, and by this means exercises effective control over the education of the pharmacist. sale of poisons.—since the passing of the poisons and phar- macy act in 1908 the number of substances brought within the range of part i. of the schedule (those substances which may not be sold to any person unknown to the seller unless introduced by a person known to both parties and of which the sale must be duly registered) has been considerably increased. it now in- cludes the following substances:— aconite, aconitine and their preparations; all poisonous alkaloids not specifically named, and their salts and all poisonous derivatives of alkaloids; arsenic and its preparations; atropine and its salts and their preparations; belladonna and all preparations or admixtures (except belladonna plasters) containing 0:1°% or more of bella- donna alkaloids; cannabis (the dried flowering or fruiting tops of the pistillate plant of cannabis sativa) and the resins prepared therefrom. cantharides and its poisonous derivatives; coca, any preparation or admixture of, containing 0-1° > or more of coca alka- loids; corrosive sublimate; cyanide of potassium and all poisonous cyanides and their preparations; diamorphine (also known as heroin) and all preparations or admixtures containing 0-1 °%9 of dia- morphine; diethyl-barbituric acid and other alkyl, aryl or metallic derivatives of barbituric acid, whether described as veronal, pro- ponal, medinal or by any other trade name, mark or designation; and all poisonous urethanes and ureides; digitalin and all other poisonous constituents of digitalis; ecgonine and all preparations or admixtures containing 0-1% of ecgonine; emetic tartar and all preparations or admixtures containing i % or more of emctic tartar; ergot of rye and preparations of ergots; lead in combination with oleic acid or other higher fatty acids, whether sold as diachylon or any other designation (except machine-spread plasters); nux vomica and all preparations or admixtures containing 0-2°%, or more of strychnine; opium and all preparations or admixtures containing 0-2, or more of morphine; picrotoxin; prussic acid and all prepara- tions or admixtures containing o-1°%% or more of prussic acid; savin and its oil and all preparations or admixtures containing savin or its oil; strophanthin and all other poisonous constituents of stro- phanthus; tobacco, any preparations or admixtures of (other than tobacco prepared for smoking and snuff), containing the poisonous alkaloids of tobacco. the changes that have been made in part [1]. of the poison schedule (those that must be labelled poison) are small; salts of barium (except barium sulphate) and zinc chloride and its liquid preparations, ex- cept those intended for industrial purposes, have been included and coca has been deleted. by the dangerous drugs act 1920-3 further restrictions have heen placed upon the sale of morphine, cocaine, ecgonine, diamorphine, heroin and their respective salts and medicinal opium. generally stated, these drugs may, with certain exceptions, be supplied only to physicians’ prescriptions and a record must be kept of the quantities bought and sold. other countrics—in the united states of america and in most other countries analogous regulations have been adopted for controlling the sale of poisonous drugs. the labelling of poisons order, which came into force on pan. i 1926 imposes further conditions upon the sale of potsons (whether contained in part i. or part 1]. of the schedule). this order and the act under which it is made require that, in general, every prepara- tion containing as an ingredient any poison to which the pharmacy act 1868, as amended, applies shall bear on the label a statement of the proportion which such poison bears to the total ingredients of the preparation. by this means control is exercised over the sale of poisons forming constituents of proprietary or secret preparations. the federation internationale pharmaceutique is endeavouring to formulate a scheme for the uniform treatment of such preparations by all the states included in it. 108 bibliography.—yearbooks: yearbook of pharmacy (london); jahresbericht der pharmazie (gottingen); yearbook of the american pharmaceutical association (chicago). journals: pharmaceutical jour.; chemist and druggtsi; british and colonial pharmacist; american jour. of pharmacy; jour. of the american pharmaceutical association; archiv der pharmazie; pharmaszetntische monatshefte; pharmazeutische nachrichten; pharmaseutische zentralhalle (dres- den); schweizerische a pothekerzeitung; jour. de pharmacie et de chimie; bulletin des sciences pharmacologiques; pharmaceutisch weekblad, jour. de pharmacie de belgique. general: n. guibourt, histoire abregee des drogues sintples (1820); j. pereira, elements of materia medica and therapeutics, 2nd ed. (1842); o. berg, anato- mischer atlas (1869); f, a. fluckiger and d. hankury, pharmaco- gra phia (1874); a. meyer, wissenschaftliche drogenkunde (1891); e. collin, les drogues simples (1895-6); a. tschirch and qo. oesterle, anatomischer atlas (1900); l. koch, afikreskopische analyse der drogenpulver (1901); a. schneider, powdered vegetable drugs (1902) ; h. g, greenish and fe. collin, anatomical atlas of vegetable powders (1904); realencyclopaedie der gesamten pharmazie (1904-12); pharmacopoea_ llelvetica (1907); pharmacopie frangaise_ (1908); a. tschirch, [iandbuch der pharmacognosie (1908-10); h. v. arny, princtples of pharmacy (1909); deutsches arsnetbuch (1910); l. koch, pharmakognostischer atlas (1911); o. tunmann, pflanzen- mikrochemie (1913); british pharmacopoeia (1914); j. p. remington and e. f. cook, practice of pharmacy (1917); g. b. wood, united states dispensatory (1918); a. astruc, pharmacie galenique (1921); m. barrowcliff and f. h. carr, organic medicinal chemicals (1921); p. haas and t. g. hill, chemistry of plant products (1921); h. b. lucas and e. w. stevens, practical pharmacy (1921); british phar- macentical codex (1923); h. g. greenish, aficroscopical examination of food and drugs (1923); h. molisch, mikrochemie der pflanze (jena 1923); j. w. moll and h. h. janssonius, botanical pen- portraits (the hague 1923); h. g. greenish, textbook of materia medica (1924); t. thoms, handbuch der praktischen und wissen- schaftlichen pharmazie (1924); h. hager, pharmaceutischtechnisches manuale (1925); t. e. wallis, practical pharmacognosy (1925); v. evers, chemistry of drugs (1926); pharmacopoeia of the united states (1926). ch. gg.) philadelphia (see 21.367), retaining its rank as third city of the united states, had in 1920 a population of 1,823,779, an increase of 274,771 over 1g10; and in 1925 (u.s. census esti- mate) 1,979,364. the population of 1920 comprised whites 1,688,180; coloured 135,599. the increase in the white popula- ‘tion since 1910 was 224,800, or 15:4°%; while the corresponding increase in the coloured population was 49,962, or 58-3 %. government and finance.-—the bullitt act, under which the city government had functioned since 1887, gave way in 1920 to the woodward act, which became effective with the beginning of the term of mayor j. hampton moore in jan. 1920. the new charter differs greatly from its predecessor. under it a dual coun- cil is succeeded by a single body composed of one member for each 20,000 assessed voters in each state senatorial district, the membership in 1920 being 21. the councilmen serve for four years. the small council has shown its superiority over the earlier system in many ways; its great weakness is the lack of a system of minority representation. in the executive depart- ment, the department of supplies is superseded by a purchasing agent; and the department of health and public charitics ts separated into two departments with a director for each. fur- ther provisions require a municipal budget system, enable the city to do its own street cleaning and garbage and ash removal and place the great majority of city employees under civil service rules. the cost of city operations has grown steadily since 1911, when, under provisions of the state school code of may 18 rorz, the - board of education was separated from the city government. the combined cost in ro11 was $33,846,875. with the school expenses eliminated, the cost in 1912 of city government was $30,213,007; and, barring a slight decrease in 1913, it has grown steadily until it reached $70,531,801 in 1925. the tax rate, ex- cluding school tax, was $1 in 1912, and $1.75 in 1922-6. this rate applied to real estate valued in 1926 at $2,940 million. on jan. 1 1925, the gross funded outstanding debt of the city was $225,967,200, of which the commissioners of the sinking fund held $58,117,900. the interest and sinking fund amounted in 1928 to three-eighths of the tax levy. commerce and industry —as a manufacturing centre phila- delphia shared the general depression of 1914, but advanced rapidly with the european demand after the outbreak of the philadelphia world war, dropping again after the war. exports and imports of the philadelphia customs district for recent years are shown (in thousands of dollars) in the following table: imports exports 73,266 90,666 442,250 130,672 126,477 106,508 106,444 119,064 88,403 72,948 282,163 122,302 154,332 219,710 202,597 215,343 the net tonnage of vessels entered at and cleared from phila- delphia customs district from and for foreign countries in recent years was as follows:— entered cleared 1910 (june 30) 2,606,097 2,250,489 i915 (june 30) 1,938,510 1,786,441 1920 (dec. 21) 3,518,865 3,806,981 1921 (dec. 21) 2,866,630 2,530,244 1922 (dec. 21) 3,126,399 2,601,711 1923. (ljec21) 2,930,003 2,204,710 1924 (dec. 21} 2,363,623 2,097,822 a remarkable increase in the activities of the port was made possible by the completion of large parts cf the 35-ft. channel from allegheny ave., philadelphia, to the sea. the channel, about 800 ft. wide throughout, was 80° > completed on dec. 1 1925, the remaining sections having a depth of 30 feet. the completion of the deeper channel opened the port to shipping of a heavier tonnage, and the result was manifest in the increased number of lines plying from thiladelphia. in 1914 there were 27 trans- atlantic and 5 coastal lines; in april 1921, 49 transatlantic and to coastal lines. philadelphia in 1ro19 had 9,064 manufacturing establishments, with 281,105 employees, and products of $1,906 million. metals and metal products were first, and textile pro- duction next, followed by food products, chemicals, clothing, paper and printing, leather and rubber products. . history—municipal history during the period ro10-8 was marked with few items of interest outside the political aspect and the natural effect of american participation in the world war. between 1919 and 1925 many much-needed and long- discussed public works were undertaken; and among those al- ready finished are the parkway from city hall to fairmount park, the roosevelt boulevard in the northeastern part of the city, the cobb’s creek parkway on the western boundary, and the frankford elevated railroad. in 1926 a suspension bridge across the delaware river, with a span of 1,750 {t., connecting with the city of camden, n. j., was completed, as were also a beautiful free library building and the exterior of the municipal art gallery. this building stands on an acropolis-like hill at the end of the parkway and furnishes an imposing view from that avenue. a four-track subway, six and a half miles in length, is under construction on north broad street; contracts for $61,000,000 had been let in 1925 and it was expected to be completed in 1927. the improvement of the harbour has been pressed forward, the latest (the 12th) modern municipal pier being completed in 1925 at a cost of $3,662,c00. a plan, jointly financed by the railway and the city, has been adopted for the relocation of the claborate system of terminals and trackage of the pennsylvania railroad. preparatory to the celebration of the rsoth anniversary of american independence in 1926, a municipal stadium, a conven- tion hall, exhibition buildings, aviation fields and other acces- sories were in 1925 being constructed in south philadelphia. the late john g. johnson, who died april 14 1917, gave the city his collection of 1,300 pictures, appraised at $4,445,802. in may roro, the art collection of mrs. emily l. harrison was left to the pennsylvania museum and school of industrial art for permanent exhibition in memorial hall. in oct. rgro, the george w. elkins collection of paintings, containing 110 master- pieces of the dutch, flemish and 18th-century portrait schools, philately—philippine islands was left to the city for display in the new art museum. in 1921 the late john howard mcfadden, a cotton broker, left to the municipality his collection of about 50 18th-century english paintings. the collection included the gainsborough ‘ lady rodney ” and portraits by romney and raeburn. (a.e.mck.) philately: see stamp collecting.