CIRCULAR. New-York, 4th March, 1818. Sir, We are instructed to transmit to you the annexed documents of the Medical Society of the State of New-York, respecting the formation of a National Pharmacopoeia. It is desirable that, according to their tenor, they should be submitted to the medical associations throughout the Union. We invite you to promote this design, and at the same time solicit your individual contributions to the work contemplated. In requesting your co-operation in this enterprise, we do not wish to conceal its diffi- culties. The object, however, is of such professional magnitude, and so highly important in a national point of view, that, it is hoped, all will unite in the most zealous endeavours to at- tain it. You will perceive the necessity of giving early attention to the subject, and also of trans- mitting to this committee whatever resolutions may be adopted, that they may be commu- nicated to other societies. In the appointment of delegates, it is scarcely necessary to suggest the propriety of selecting , gentlemen distinguished for their abilities and learning, and who will zealously engage in this undertaking. It is particularly proper to impress the importance of these points on the incor- porated State Medical Societies, and others, in the immediate vicinity of the probable places of the meetings of the district conventions ; for on these delegates much of the labour of forming the district Pharmacopoeias must eventually devolve. Each delegation should be furnished with a copy of the proceedings of their constituents, at- tached to their credentials; and each district convention should furnish a general record, as evidence of the authority of its delegation. It is greatly to be wished, that every indigenous article, deserving a place in a Pharmaco- poeia, should be introduced into this national work, so as to render it as truly American as possible. This object will be promoted by an attention on the part of the delegates to such native plants as are most in use in their own vicinity ; and in order to identify more exactly the ar- ticles alluded to, it will be advantageous to furnishs the district conventions with specimens of the same, collected when in flower, and carefully dried between folds of blotting-paper, accompanying them with the local or popular names. Every delegate, on his appointment, will therefore consider it his duty to collect such formulas as are in common use in the district of his residence, and have received the sanction of experience. If it should be more convenient for any delegation to meet in the convention of either of the districts, other than that in which they are geographically located, it is presumed that no objections can arise to such an arrangement. It will be highly gratifying to us to learn from the several incorporated State Medical So- cieties, the several incorporated Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons, or Medical Schools, and such Medical Schools as form a faculty in any incorporated University or College in the Union, that the design of forming an American Pharmacopoeia receives their approbation. All communications, from the before named institutions, may be addressed to Lyman Spal- ding, M. D. New-York. We have the honour to be yo^r humble servants, DAVID HOSACK, ^ JOHN R. B. RODGERS, SAMUEL L. MITCHILL, JOHN STEARNS, JOHN WATTS, Junr. ^Committee. T. ROMEYN BECK, LYMAN SPALDING, WRIGHT POST, ALEX. H. STEVENS. Extract from the Transactions of the Medical Society of the State of New-York, for the year 1818. Whereas a uniform system of preparing, and compounding medicines, throughout the United States, would con- tribute much to the satisfaction of the practitioner, and obviate many existing sources of embarrassment and dan- ger ; And whereas much diversity does now prevail in pharmaceutical preparations in the different sections and states of the Union, in consequence of the various Pharmacopoeias which are adopted—such as Coxe's Dispensa- tory, the Massachusetts Medical Society's Pharmacopoeia, Thacher's Dispensatory, the New-York Hospital Phamacopoeia, the Edinburgh Dispensatory, the London Dispensatory, the London Pharmacopoeia, the Dublin Pharmacopoeia, the Parisian Pharmacopoeia, &c.—which accounts for a well-known factj that the traveller finds a different preparation, under the same name, in almost every village, town, or city, in which he may chance to be indisposed ; for so multifarious are the names of medicines, that a name which is common in one town may be unknown in another, or, what is worse, be applied to a very different medicine. Therefore, Resolved, That it is expedient that a Pharmacopoeia should be formed for the use of the United Slates. Resolved. That the several incorporated state medical societies, the several incorporated colleges of physicians and surgeons, or medical schools, and such medical schools as constitute a faculty in any incorporated university or college in the United States, be respectfully invited to unite in the formation of the American Pharmacopoeia ; and in case there should be any state or territory in the Union, in which there is no incorporated medical soci- ety, medical college, or school, that voluntary associations of physicians and surgeons, in such state or territory, be respectfully invited to unite in this undertaking. Resolved, That to form an American Pharmacopoeia, it is expedient to divide the United States and ter- ritories into four districts, viz. the northern, middle, southern, and western. Resolved, That a convention be called in each of these districts. Resolved, That each state medical society, college of physicians and surgeons, medical school, faculty of medicine, and voluntary association, as before described, be invited to appoint one or more delegates to meet in a district convention. Resolved, That each district convention form a Pharmacopoeia, or select one in general use, and make therein such alterations and additions as shall adapt it to the present state of medical science. Resolved, That each district convention he requested to appoint one or more delegates, to meet in a general convention, and submit to the same their Pharmacopoeias. Resolved, That it be recommended to each medical society, &c. to defray the expenses of its own delegation, and its proportion of the expenses of the district convention. Resolved, That the general convention be held in the city of Washington on the first day of January, A. D. 1820, for the purpose of compiling the American Pharmacopoeia from those Pharmacopoeias which may be pre- sented by the district conventions. Resolved, That the general convention adopt a plan for Revising the American Pharmacopoeia at the end of every ten years, and that no alteration he made therein except at those periods, and then only by the authority aforesaid. Resolved, That it be recommended to every medical society, m$< I . ''«X,' bino»)\f ; : I. '•'■■*" ...^_M& * WWc. '^X