Lyman  Spalding,  who  submitted  his  plan  to  the  New  York  County
Medical  Society,  in  1817;  yet  it  is  due  to  this  College  to  recall  to
recollection  its  early  though  unsuccessful  efforts  to  accomplish  the
same  desirable  object.  On  the  1st  of  May,  1787,  Dr.  John  Mor-
gan proposed  to  the  College  to  form  a  Pharmacopoeia  for  Penn-
sylvania. This  proposition  does  not  appear  to  have  been  acted
upon  until  June  of  the  following  year,  when  a  committee  was  ap-
pointed to  consider  it.  In  April,  1789,  a  draught  of  a  letter  was
reported,  to  be  addressed  to  the  "  most  respectable  practitioners
of  the  United  States,"  in  which  the  importance  of  a  National
Pharmacopoeia  is  referred  to.  This  appears  to  have  elicited  a
communication  from  Dr.  James  Tilton,  of  Delaware,  addressed
to  the  College  the  succeeding  year,  containing  suggestions  in  rela-
tion to  the  formation  of  the  work.  In  1791,  Dr.  Benjamin  Smith


DR.    THOMAS    T.    IIEWSOX.  T.l'T

Barton  was  appointed  on  the  Pharmacopoeia  Committee  ;  mid,  in
November,  1792,  the  committee  made  its  first  report.  The  subject
was  allowed  to  sleep  until  1794,  when  Dr.  Parke  was  added  to  the
committee.  Nothing  appears  on  the  minutes  respecting  the  com-
mittee until  April,  1797,  when  it  made  its  second  report;  and,  in
the  following  June,  the  report  being  again  read,  the  recommenda-
tion of  the  committee  was  adopted,  "  that  an  enumeration  be  made
of  all  medicinal  substances  and  pharmaceutical  processes  as  shall
appear  useful  and  proper  to  compose  the  intended  Pharmacopoeia."
Drs.  Griffitts,  Barton,  and  James,  were  appointed  to  make  the  enu-
meration ;  but  it  does  not  appear  by  the  minutes  that  they  ever
fulfilled  the  duties  of  their  appointment.
