Unofficial Pharmacopeias

Abstract

THE last British Pharmacopeia was published in 1914;. a new one is now in preparation and is due to appear in 1931. In the interval, the United States has produced two official pharmacopeias, the ninth in 1916 and the tenth in 1926. The long intervals between successive editions, the wise conservatism of pharmacopeial commissions, and the limitations imposed upon pharmacopeias by their legal status, make it inevitable that there must always be a huge materia medica which does not find official recognition, and this is the happy hunting ground of the compiler of dispensatories, formularies, pharmacopeial companions, and in general of the mass of literature which may be grouped together as ‘unofficial pharmacopeias’. Such literature is indispensable to the busy pharmacist and medical man, as is evident from the fact that the two books now under review are in their nineteenth and tenth editions respectively. They both supplement the official pharmacopeia and they are complementary to each other. (1) The Extra Pharmacopœia of Martindale and Westcott. Revised by Dr. W. Harrison Martindale. Nineteenth edition. In 2 volumes. Vol. 2. Pp. xxxviii + 759. (London: H. K. Lewis and Co., Ltd., 1929.) 22s. 6d. net. (2) Pharmaceutical Formulas. P.F. Vol. 1 being The Chemist and Druggist Book of selected Formulas from the British, United States, and other Pharmacopœias, together with Non-Official Formulas from various Sources. Tenth edition, entirely revised and rewritten. By S. W. Woolley and G. P. Forrester. Pp. xvi + 1146. (London: The Chemist and Druggist, 1929.) 15s.