The Oil of Savine, according to the best of authority can be distilled only in Europe and is essentially a German or Austrian article. It must therefore be imported into the United States, which in a measure accounts for the high price of the genuine article. The adulterated goods seem to be numerous. The Number of Wholesale Drug Houses in the United States is decreasing. We have on more occasions than one called attention to the unsatisfactory condition of the drug trade which causes one after another of those firms already established in business to make good any opportunity whereby they can retire from active business. Among the most recent evidences of this condition we mention the consolidation of two prominent jobbers of Detroit, Mich. The Price of Cod Liver Oil will not be affected by the recent decision of the Board of General Appraisers holding that fish livers do not come under the construction of intestines, integuments and sounds which are free of duty, thus obliging those who import fish livers to pay a duty of cents per pound. Newspaper articles claim that this will raise the price of cod liver oil. This drug, however, is already provided for in the Dingley bill, and pays duty of 15 cents per pound. What Is Sweet Oil? A few years ago, before the indorsement of cottonseed oil for use in pharmaceutical preparations and its general introduction as an article of diet, sweet oil was a term by common practice restricted to the ordinary olive oil as found in the drug trade, the term olive oil being reserved for the better qualities of that article. It is now perplexing to the wholesale and retail druggist who receives an order for sweet oil to know just what should be supplied. We feel that the old practice of supplying common olive oil is the right one, but will be glad to receive suggestions from our readers on that point. It is within the power of the trade to settle the matter once for all by adopting a definite rule. What shall the rule be? The Metric System in England is stirring up affairs pharmaceutical. The journals of that country have numerous articles and much correspondence on the subject. Evidently many of the druggists of the country are struggling with the relation between the metric system and their old cumbersome methods of determining weights and measures. What is more, our British cousins seem to be getting at the matter in the most awkward manner possible, figuring out the relation to the third or fourth decimal point. They can save themselves much trouble and insure safety to their customers by at once providing proper metric weights and measures for the prescription case department and by never translating from one system to the other. By practice they will soon become familiar with metric terms so that the competent prescriptionist can estimate 30 cc. as easily as he can a fluid ounce, or mark off 25 mm. as he would one inch. This familiarity of the system will give the trained eye and mind approximate relation to the old, and this is all that is necessary. Discuss the Papers and profit by the information brought out during the exchange of ideas. Such has | been the burden of our suggestions about the reading of papers at State and national pharmaceutical associations, as shown by the editorial columns of this journal during the last few years. As we have often repeated, it is a waste of time and energy and a wear upon one's disposition to read long papers before an audience which listens or pretends to listen through a sense of duty; the presiding officer watching to see that not more than a few seconds is consumed in starting a new paper after one has been finished. The real value of a paper to the members of the association depends upon the discussions that follow. We are pleased to see the Pharmaceutical Review and the American Journal of Pharmacy giving attention to the same subject in the vigorous style peculiar to these publications. We hope that every other pharmaceutical journal in this country will take up the good work and bend the energies of the pharmaceutical press towards correcting one of the most faulty features of our pharmaceutical gatherings. "Do to Others as You Wish to be Done By."— This excellent maxim is doubtless the safest and most simple rule to guide us in all our intercourse with mankind, whether they be neighbors or at a distance, whether they be of our own family or not, whether they be our own nationality or not. The rule is particularly of great importance in business matters and commercial intercourse. We are naturally all selfish, but there should be a limit to the practice of our selfish motives. When we have any doubts as to how far we can follow the inclination of selfishness we should simply ask ourselves, how would I judge the case from his or her standpoint ? The Vocation of a Merchant is generally considered as offering a great temptation for dishonesty, in fact, many people believe that an honest merchant cannot be successful in his calling. Just the contrary is the case, as all who have given this subject careful attention will testify. An Honesty is indeed the only safeguard to success. honest merchant may not accumulate a fortune as rapidly as a dishonest one, but his success is more lasting. Honesty, like other virtues, is a matter of education and requires constant vigilance. Many people, we might say most people, who claim to be honest are not strictly honest. In their limited sphere they may not do a dishonest act, but it is simply because they have no opportunity nor temptation to be dishonest. Many people will not correct a merchant if he has made a mistake against himself in a bill. The same when a farmer or huckster sells his produce and a mistake is made in counting or weighing in his favor, he does not always see to it that such errors are corrected. Yet such people would consider it a great insult if they were called dishonest. If a conductor passes through a car and fails to collect from someone, many do not consider it their duty to see that the fare is paid. There Are Other Kinds of dishonesty which are, or should also be, measured by the maxim at the top of these remarks. You are a merchant or a manufacturer and your competitor has a person in his employ whose services you would like to obtain-in other words, you would consider yourself benefited if you obtained his services, and in all probabilities your competitor would be injured-would it be honorable to make overtures with a view of obtaining said party-certainly not, because the maxim that should always control us would be disregarded. The commercial occupation is one where a person can obtain a very high degree of honesty and honor because it offers so many temptations to be dishonest, and by studying and weighing them on the maxim quoted, he attains a high degree of honesty. Being strictly guided by the rule, it will be a pleasant gratification when, in mature age, he can look back and feel that he has constantly kept this maxim in view, and that it has been a guiding star. The Human Stomach is not the important and necessary organ of digestion that our older readers have been taught when studying physiology years ago. The writer has laid stress upon this point in lectures on the subject of physiology to medical students for a number of years past. His remarks on digestion before a recent meeting of the Illinois Pharmaceutical Association startled some of the members, who could scarcely believe that the stomach is a digestive organ of secondary importance and that the previously-conceived notion in regard to digestion is disproven by physiologic investigation. The newspapers of to-day, however, are commenting upon a surgical operation recently performed at Zurich by Dr. Carl Schlatter, who removed the entire stomach from a woman. She is fully recovered and seems to be enjoying good health. This operation will, no doubt, be followed by others where certain conditions indicate the propriety of the operation, and we are confident that no physiologic reasons exist to discourage the removal of the stomach when it is sufficiently diseased to endanger the life of the patient. In fact, Dr. E. C. Wendt, in discussing the above case in a recent issue of the Medical Record, summarizes the investigation as follows: 1. The human stomach is not a vital organ. 2. The digestive capacity of the human stomach has been considerably overrated. 3. The fluids and solids constituting an ordinary mixed diet are capable of complete digestion and assimilation without the aid of the human stomach. 4. A gain in the weight of the body may take place in spite of the total absence of gastric activity. 5. Typical vomiting may occur without a stomach. 6. The general health of a person need not immediately deteriorate on account of the removal of the stomach. 7. The most important office of the human stomach is to act as a reservoir for the reception, preliminary preparation and propulsion of food and fluids. It also fulfills a useful purpose in regulating the temperature of swallowed solids and liquids. 8. The chemical functions of the human stomach may be completely and satisfactorily performed by the other divisions of the alimentary canal. 9. Gastric juice is hostile to the development of many microorganisms. 10. The free acid of normal gastric secretions has no power to Its antiarrest putrefactive changes in the intestinal tract. septic and bactericidal potency has been overestimated. The Anti-Vivisection Fad.-The human brain is a restless organ when considered as the seat of the mind. It is a structure which must be active, and if not controlled and directed will produce undesirable fruits. In evidence of this we have the old proverb: An idle brain is the Devil's workshop. While we are not willing to give Satin credit for the invincibleness of the average anti-vivisectionist, we feel that the strange illusions are usually due to the fact that the active, but unoccupied mind is anxious for work and grasps this fad in its eagerness to be employed. We have been reminded of the vivisection question by the publication of a letter written by Dr. Chas. Denison to the Reform Department of the Denver Womans' Club. From his answer to a request for comments on the subject we copy the following: "But, seriously, it does seem like the 'irony of fate' that you women, whose children the medical profession are trying to save from death by infection and contagious diseases, should join the hue and cry against the very means which are just now proving to be the most successful in overcoming these very diseases. It is probably understood by very few of infectious diseases is you that each of these due to a specific cause, which can only be eliminated from the human system by means of a naturally existing or artifically created antitoxin in the blood of the affected person, and that thus far the chief and only reliable means of discovering these antitoxins has been by animal experiments performed with great care in physiologic and bacteriologic laboratories. "In illustration I could mention here, for the lack of space to say more, the custom of experimenters to poison guinea-pigs with virulent tuberculin, diphtheretic or other poisons, that they may then neutralize these toxins and prevent the animals dying by the use of the proper antitoxin to the given disease. The advance of science is nowadays replete with this kind of evidence, and while it may take hundreds of guinea-pigs to establish such a cure, we claim that any discriminating person ought to be willing to put the life of a little child against a million of these vermin, if necessary. a "The. fanaticism of some people impells me to relate, in this connection, the late experience of brother physician in Philadelphia. A friend of his had three children, the two oldest of whom were attacked by malignant diphtheria. They were attended by a so-called 'Christian science healer,' who was put in charge, and both in due time died. The third child came down with the same virulent disease and the neighbors insisted on my doctor friend being called. He came and happily in time injected the new antitoxin for diphtheria, and the child recovered. The irony comes in when, less than two months afterward, this friend of his, the father of these children, comes to ask the doctor to attend with him a 'Christian science' meeting! Do you wonder that doctors get very 'tired' in view of such perverse conditions, and are moved to exclaim, with the poet Burns, 'It's hardly in a body's power to keep at times frae being sour, to see how things are shared.' STRAY ITEMS AND COMMENTS. No Attention is paid anonymous communications. Display Your Certificate of registration in accordance with the provisions of the law. Preserve each issue of the MEYER BROTHERS DRUGGIST and have the volume bound. Prescriptions that are difficult to read can be reproduced in the MEYER BROTHERS DRUGGIST. Our Prescription Case Department is for the use of our readers. Do not hesitate in sending us your problems. Only Four Months to the June 6 meeting of the Missouri Pharmaceutical Association at Meramec Highlands. Wall's Notes on Pharmacognosy prevent many a student from failing on an examination, or going home without a certificate. Ancient Pharmacy in Mexico, as far as we know, has never received attention before that given in a series of articles now being published in this journal and written for us by Dr. B. F. G. Egeling. Additional Interest is given the sketch of familiar drugs as seen by Dr. Louis Crusius, Ph. G., since the death of that popular artist. The one appearing in our January issue and the few following sketches were prepared by the Doctor but a few days before his death. The Discovery of oxygen by Priestly was celebrated in 1874 by a meeting of American chemists held in Northumberland, Pa. As an outgrowth of that meeting we have the American Chemical Society, which convened in annual reunion at Washington, December 29 and 30. The United States Pharmacopoeia must be improved in order to keep it up with the times. If each State association had a committee on the subject, with a chairman like Dr. G. H. Chas. Klie, Ph. G., of St. Louis, the next pharmacopoeia would indeed be a model of its kind. Formaldehyde. The American Microscopical Journal says: The credit of the discovery of the powerful antiseptic properties of formaldehyde and its practical application is due to A. Frillat, who in 1888 first noticed its preserving action on samples of wine, and in 1891 made public his experiments, showing it to possess antiseptic properties much superior to all non-toxic organic antisepties then known. Our Gallery of prominent pharmacists, as portrayed on the cover of the MEYER BROTHERS DRUGGIST, was opened with the November number, containing the picture of Mr. H. M. Whitney, of Lawrence, Mass., President of the A. Ph. A., followed by the December issue with Paul G Schuh, of Cairo, Ill., President of the Illinois Pharmaceutical Association, and in January with Thomas Layton, of St. Louis, President of the Missouri Pharmaceutical Association. The Death Cup (amanita phalloides) is the most poisonous of all the fleshy fungi. It is found in summer and autumn throughout the greater part of the United States, growing upon the ground in woods at medium and lower elevations. The stem is white; when young it is solid, but afterwards becomes somewhat hollow and pithy. The base is surrounded by a characteristic cupshaped appendage, the remnant of a veil which covers the entire plant when young. The length varies from three to five inches. The cap is viscid when moist, snd is generally smooth and satiny, but it may sometimes bear fragments of the outer covering or veil. The gills and spores are white. Several varieties of the plant exist, the one most common having a white or yellowish cap, but this may be green or spotted when growing in deep shade. The general shape is much like that of the common mushroom. The Age of Pharmacy.-A writer in the British and Colonial Druggist says: "Medicine is just as ancient as pharmacy and not a day older, for there can be little doubt that when some wood-stained savage, roaming in the primeval forest that once flourished in Pall Mall, first thought of hastening his cure from the wound of an enemy, he gathered leaves and herbs, and compounded them into an unguent for the purpose. No! There is no art or craft on earth older than the art of mixing or preparing remedies to cure disease. "In the days when the world was young the Church comprised within itself all the professions, and the priest was alike physician, lawyer, apothecary and minister of religion. The first profession to isolate itself from the Church was Law, then came Medicine, carrying its weaker sister Pharmacy under its wing. As years went by the weaker art of Pharmacy became too strong to brook the control of even the great science of Medicine, and the two parted. This was very recently, and accordingly Pharmacy is yet a comparative youngster; but, mind you, only 'comparative.' A few years ago the Apothecaries' Halls were little better than the drug stores of to-day. Now, they are learned colleges. I predict that in less than a century the pharmaceutical societies will be able to hold their own with the medical corporations which affect to look down on them to-day. The prescribing chemist is rapidly disappearing, and the dispensing doctor will soon follow in his wake, for whatever pessimists may say to the contrary, the pharmacist is entitled to a high place in scientific hierarchy, and, what is more, sooner or later he must have it." EDITOR'S TABLE. Any book reviewed in this Department may be obtained upon receipt of price at the office of the DRUGgist. The Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition, to be held at Omaha in 1898, has, through the Department of Publicity, located in the Bee Building, issued a very handsome and instructive pamphlet, a copy of which can be obtained by making application. We hope that the pharmaceutical profession will be well represented at the exposition. Minnesota Pharmaceutical Association, report on the 1897 meeting. This volume contains most excellent photo-engravings of Mr. Edward C. Dorr and Prof. Frederick J. Wulling. It also has two pages devoted to the American Pharmaceutical Association. For the latter attention the organization is indebted to the thoughtfulness of Secretary C. T. Heller. May the secretaries of other State associations follow his worthy example. Elements of Vegetable Microscopy, for the use of students of pharmacy preparatory to the study of pharmacognosy; illustrated with seventy figures. By Daniel Base, Ph. D., of the Maryland College of Pharmacy, Baltimore, Md. Price, $1.00. This volume is especially intended for the students of the Maryland College of Pharmacy. Unfortunately, there is little uniformity in the method of teaching pharmacognosy and microscopy in the different colleges of pharmacy, so that the text-book suitable as a guide for one institution may prove of but little value in other colleges. The work before us is very carefully and sytematically laid out so that the volume must prove of great value to students following such a course. It is also useful as a work of reference at least for any pharmacy student. We also suggest it as a guide for those endeavoring to do microscopical work at home. A Text-Book of Practical Therapeutics, with especial reference to the application of Remedial Measures to Disease and their employment upon a Rational Basis. By Hobart Amory Hare, M. D., Professor of Therapeutics and Materia Medica in the Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, etc. With special chapters by Drs. George E. de Schweinitz, Edward Martin and Barton C. Hist. Sixth edition, thoroughly revised and largely rewritten. In one octavo volume of 756 pages. Cloth, $3.75; leather, $4.75. Lea Brothers & Co., publishers, Philadelphia and New York, 1897. Few progressive pharmacists now attempt to get along without one or more works on therapeutics. The volume before us contains much of the special information they desire on the subject. A not uncommon result of recurring editions is the loss of a large part of the original value of a work arising through the confusion of added statements without due elision of matter which may have become partly obsolete, or through the failure to remould the text so as to present facts in logical sequence. To avoid this danger the author has practically rewritten the present edition. Like preceding issues, the present edition has been revised to the latest date, those newer measures which have proved useful and reliable, including the treatment by serum preparations, being introduced. A Practical Treatise on Sexual Disorders of the male and female. By Robert W. Taylor, A. M., M. D., clinical professor of veneral diseases at the College of Physicians and Surgeons (Columbia College) New York, Surgeon to the Bellevue Hospital, and Consulting Surgeon to the City (charity) Hospital, New York. With seventy-three illustrations and eight plates in color and monotone. Lea Brothers & Co., New York and Philadelphia. 1897. No one, excepting the physician, realizes the extent of sexual troubles as fully as the average pharmacist. The druggist is often consulted in cases that never reach the attention of the doctor. Thus we feel that such a work as the one before us is of special interest to our readers. It treats the subject in the light of modern anatomy, physiology and pathology. The reader must not expect to find in it a list of "sure cures," "one day cures," etc., but he will obtain much practical information and no doubt hesitate about counter prescribing in such cases as freely as customers demand. Accidents and Emergencies, a manual of the treatment of surgical and medical emergencies in the absence of a physician, by Charles W. Dulles, M. D., fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, and of the Academy of Surgery, Surgeon of the Rush Hospital; formerly surgeon to the out-door department of the hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and of the Presbyterian Hospital in Philadelphia, and assistant surgeon second regiment, N. G. Pa. Fifth edition, thoroughly revised and enlarged, with new illustrations. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston, Son & Co., 1012 Walnut street. 1897; $1.00. Of all citizens, the pharmacists are the ones who should know just what is best to do in the case of accidents from the time of the occurrence until the physician comes. The public looks npon the drug store as a free hospital, always open for the reception of all classes of patients who have met with accidents. The reading of a volume like the one in hand will fix in the pharmacist's mind a general idea of what should be done. If the book is kept convenient further reference can be taken when occasion requires. In the fifth edition of this work special attention is given to emergencies resulting from the new prevalent use of electricity in lighting and as a motor. From this chapter we copy the following: "When a person who has received a severe shock has been released from the current, he should be laid down in a safe place, his clothing should be loosened and he should have plenty of fresh air and bodily rest. Medicines are not of much use, but the body must be kept comfortably warm, and if the breathing is suspended or feeble, artificial respiration must be set up in the manner described in speaking of drowning (see p. 13). The mouth will not have to be cleared as in drowning accidents, but care must be taken that the tongue does not fall back in the mouth, so that its base shall close the breathing passages. "If these suggestions are followed, anyone who has not received a shock instantly fatal may be expected Complete recovery may take some time; but the beginning of recovery will not be long delayed." to recover. Louis Pasteur was at one time an assistant in a French provincial pharmacy. The second case was in the hands of the "old man himself! Having a prescription to prepare that called for 20 minims of diluted bromine (?), he attempted to prepare a solution of that element in the proportion of 1 to 40. Trying to open the bromine bottle it was broken so badly that transference of contents was necessary. A tightly-fitting funnel was placed into a new container and the bromine hastily poured into it.. Then the fun began. Not only were the poisonous fumes given off in large quantity, but the bromine in the new container exploded, driving out the spray in large quantities. This operation was also done at arm's length, to which fact alone the "old man" is indebted for his eye sight. The great irritation of the Schneiderian membrane caused by breathing the fumes was overcome by inhaling a little ammonia, but the bromine odor lingers around him yet on the third day. No more pure bromine will be dispensed in this shop soon. But we would like to know why it exploded, as above described, and, has it a habit of behaving that way at odd times?-[ JOHN B. BOND, Sr., Little Rock, Ark., January 4, 1898. Medical Periodicals in the United States.-The Philadelphia Medical Journal says: We find, from a newspaper directory recently issued, that the medical profession of this country supports, directly or indirectly, 275 periodicals, of which ten or issued weekly, eleven fortnightly, 225 monthly, six by-monthly and twenty-three quarterly, with a combined yearly circulation of 16,017,200 copies. Estimating that there are in round numbers 120,000 medical men of all schools north of the Gulf of Mexico, of whom probably not over 80,000 subscribe to a medical journal of any kind, this vast amount of literature seems an enormous burden to carry. Bind the MEYER BROTHERS DRUGGIST for 1897. COLLEGES OF PHARMACY. The Pittsburg College of Pharmacy. The twentieth annual lecture course was opened on October 4, with a very large attendance, there being twenty-six enrolled in the senior class and fifty-one in the junior class. Among the number are three ladies. Drake University.-Our Pharmacist Department opened last September with good attendance and much enthusiasm. Our faculty has been changed somewhat, Dr. Stevenson being called to the chair of Organic Materia Medica and Therapeutics; Professor Frank Edel is now lecturer on Theory and Practice of Pharmacy. Our laboratories have been thoroughly recruited and our aim is ever the same to keep abreast with the latest and most approved methods of teaching.-[A. H. STEBER, M. D., Ph. G., Dean of Pharmacy, Des Moines, Ia. Chicago College of Pharmacy.-We are preparing a revised register of our alumni and have been unable Clark, Harry A., 1888, "W. B. DAY, Actuary." Mueller, Philip John, 1875. Paul, Otto Elijah, 1890. Pearse, Warren Milton, 1885. Pfunder, Frederick Henry, 1885. Sandmeyer, Louis Adolph, 1885. Schaeffer, Elmer Eugene, 1881. Schartzel, William S., 1882. Smith, Charles Francis, 1887. Smith, Thomas P., 1875. Taylor, William Stanford, 1885. Thompson, L. M., 1884. Thurber, Almon R., 1876. VanGorder, George L., 1886. Wise, John G., 1885. Woodfil, John Gabriel, 1889. For Toothache trim your finger-nails on Friday, eat bread a mouse has nibbled, or bury a tooth in the hole of a mouse, or carry in the pocket a tooth from a soldier killed in battle, or from a murdered man. Kiss a mule. Rub the gums with the body of an ant, bee, or fly, or prick them with a sharp twig from a sweet apple tree. A Man who is not able to make a bow to his own conscience every morning is hardly in a condition to respectfully salute the world at any other time of the day. [Douglas Jerrold. |