“ It is not to be supposed that the person who swallows a dose of medicine dreams that it is not of good quality, or that he would hesitate in the value of six cents when purchasing his dose, between the best of its kind and that which is comparatively inert. The root of this great evil, viz: the purchasing, selling, and administering inferior medicines is ignorance. The patient can have little or no knowledge of the efficacy of what is given to him to take, and to the shame of a large portion of the medical profession be it spoken, the doctor knows but little more. ”

“ We made a dog, in whose stomach we had formed a fistulous opening, swallow some fragments of woorara mixed with his food; after a little time we obtained some of his gastric juice, and on analysis found it to resemble in every respect a solution of woorara. Thus we have the singular phenomenon of an animal, carrying in its stomach, harmless to itself, a liquid {80} which would cause instant death to any others who should be inoculated with it. Not only did the dog which swallowed the poison experience no fatal result from it, but its digestion was not even affected by it ”

“ We agree with our author that the introduction of a new system is much easier than is generally supposed. It will not be like the change of a monetary system, where the old coins remain, mingled with the new, to perpetuate the old names.—The change could be, by law, effected next New Year’s day, and all inconvenience from it would be over in a month, save some awkwardness from habit, and two more serious difficulties. ”

“ It would be of vast benefit to the community at large, as well as eminently useful to the medical profession; for as all must admit, it is of the most vital importance to the success of the physician, that his remedial agents are properly prepared by a well-bred and perfectly educated chemist and pharmaceutist; and, I may add my conviction, that medical and phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal chemistry, a part of medical education that has thus far been most unpardonably neglected, should be universally and efficiently taught in our Schools of Medicine. ”

“ Not that such a work was going to show more emphatically than business men feel, and reflecting men know, the importance of such an universal conformity; or that a book whose pages deal in discords, could, of itself, produce unison; but the first step to any harmonious settlement is, to see clearly, and at a glance, where the differences lie, and what they are.—If a millennial period for this world is ever to come, as many wise have deemed, and pious prayed, it must be preceded by one common language, and one common system of weights and measures, as the basis of intercourse. ”

“ The mere attempt to write on a subject like scientific pharmacy leads to a close scanning of the foundation of our opinions, to renewed experiments to ascertain their justness, to more enlightened views of the connection and bearing of our science. ”

“ If popular, instead of professional reputation, is to be the criterion, are not Arnica, and Matricaria, and Benne leaves, and horehound, quite as well entitled to a place in the primary list as many of the articles that now figure there? And are there not twenty simples in use among the old women of the country that deserve a place in the national Pharmacopœia as well as may weed, and frost wort, and fever root? Though, too, new articles should not readily be admitted until time has fixed their value, we should like to have seen some notice of Matico and of the salts of Valerianic acid. ”

“ I am quite convinced that every Chemist who has kept up his knowledge as to analysis, will not only succeed in detecting their presence, but even in determining the nature of that which he has discovered, provided that the alkaloid in question is one of that class of bodies, the properties of which have been suitably studied. Thus he will be able to discover conia, nicotine, aniline, picoline, petinine, morphine, codeine, narcotine, strychnine, brucine, veratrine, colchicine, delphine, emetine, solanine, aconitine, atropine, hyoscyamine. ”

“ It needs no argument, but merely a mention of the fact, to show that any compound medicine or chemical preparation may be so made as to deceive the unsuspecting and uneducated, and even very often the druggist, apothecary, physician, and all, because they were not in the habit of analysing their articles, and were deceived by their external, often times very fine appearance. Under the combined influence of competition and avarice—two strong temptations, the manufacture of articles of this class had become systematised, and on purpose to supply the United States market. ”

“ When there is such diversity of practice in the City of Philadelphia and in New York, within five hours of each other, with intercommunication five times a day, in each of which the formation and subsequent revisions of the Pharmacopœia have been of such especial interest and attention, how can it be expected that in our widely extended country, in communities diversified almost as much as those of different nations, with many local habits, set by time and many prejudices, a full and uniform compliance with the official standard should prevail. ”

“ It has often been claimed that the law was a tariff for protection to home adulteration, and while we shut out the evil in one way, we were equally exposed to it in the shape of home preparations; were this even true, it is no argument against the law for keeping out foreign adulteration, as it is very evident that if both are equally bad, no pure medicine can be had by those who require them, while if we are certain the foreign are pure, we have a choice between the pure and the sophisticated. ”

“ Our medical brethren have, as you are doubtless aware, an organization, similar in character, holding its sessions annually, in which all matters pertaining to their profession are fully discussed—the beneficial effects of which are already apparent, though the association has been in existence but a few years.
They cannot give to the subject of Pharmacy the attention it requires and deserves, neither is it a matter legitimately falling under their cognizance, but belongs to Phar­ma­ceu­tists themselves. ”

“ The confusion of Babel is felt most severely in the matter of weights and measures. Whether we consider the number of names of weights and measures, the similarity of names, the discrepancy in amount between those of the same name, or the irregular relations of those of the same denomination, we find a maze, the intricacies of which we cannot retain in our memory an hour after we have committed them to it. ”

“ It is in the union of its members, in mutual association and intercourse, in the formation of a public opinion of its own, which, {160} operating first upon the members of the profession, will necessarily have its weight upon the public opinion of the community, that lie our best hopes. Pharmacy is at once a liberal art, and a trade. In individuals, particularly in a community like ours, the spirit of trade is apt to be in the ascendant. Science is estimated at its money value, for what it brings in, rather than for what it is. ”

“ The portion of the insoluble oil has lost its color, its smell, a part of its pungency, and all its acidity.
The portion of oil which has been dissolved in alcohol, when separated from this menstruum by evaporation, is more viscid, more colored, more pungent, and acid. The oil which is not dissolved, can be acted upon again by alcohol; by this second operation, it yields some parts to the alcohol, and the remainder loses all its specific qualities. The action of alcohol upon oil in successive operation, can be followed up to its last limits. ”

“ As the sulphates of ammonia, of nicotine, aniline, quinoleine, picoline, and petinine, are entirely insoluble in ether, the water acidulated with sulphuric acid contains the alkaloid in a small bulk, and in the state of a pure sulphate; but as the sulphate of conia is soluble in ether, the ether may contain a small quantity of this alkali, but the greater part remains in the acidulated watery solution. The ether, on the other hand, retains all the animal matters which it has taken from the alkaline solutions. ”

“ It may be readily conceived that the research for absorbed nicotine might be fruitless in those cases where death was occasioned by only a few drops of this body; but then the presence of the alkali may be detected in the digestive canal.
Gentlemen, after results such as those obtained by M. Stas and myself, society may feel satisfied. Without doubt intelligent and skilful criminals, intent on puzzling the Chemists, will sometimes have recourse to very active poisons, but little known to the community at large, and difficult to detect; but science is on the alert to surmount all difficulties. ”

“ In point of economy, coal gas is cheaper than alcohol for fuel, even in America where the latter is so cheap, and the price of gas is comparatively high; and, it is to be hoped, that the price of the latter will be reduced, so that coal gas may yet be used with economy, as a source of heat for domestic as well as for chemical and phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal purposes. ”

“ A weak, watery solution thrown into the jugular vein of a dog or a rabbit, has always produced sudden death, the animal uttering no cry, nor manifesting any convulsive agitation. The effect on the whole organization is electric, and the vital functions are arrested as by lightning. When introduced under the skin in solution or in solid fragments, its poisonous action manifests itself more slowly, and the time is varied by the dose, the size of the animal, and its species. Other things being equal, birds die soonest, then the mammalia, and then reptiles ”

“ When powdered flies are stirred into the ordinary vehicle of resin, wax, and lard, so as to chill it almost immediately as was formerly directed, but little of the cantharidin is dissolved by the fatty matter, and when applied to the skin the process of vesication is retarded. If, however, the cerate be kept fluid for a length of time, say for half an hour, by a water-bath or other regular heat, no loss of cantharidin occurs by the heat, the active principle is in a great measure dissolved by the fat, and every part is impregnated and active. ”

“ When the washings, after addition of excess of nitric acid, no longer react with nitrate of silver, or with chloride of barium, the mass is introduced into porcelain dishes, and dried on the sand bath; when dry it is exposed to a high sand bath heat, though not to a red heat, for two or three hours. By this treatment, not only are one equivalent of carbonic acid, and one equivalent of water expelled, but the greater part or the whole of the silicate is decomposed and converted into carbonate, so that a solution of the mass in water will now be found full of flakes of silica. ”

“ Valerianic acid, it is well known, occurs preformed in certain plants; and it is equally well known, that it can be produced in the laboratory by artificial means. This very fact is of great interest to the investigating chemist, as it encourages him in the belief that he will, sooner or later, be able to produce artificially, not only acids, which are known to exist in the animal and vegetable kingdoms; but that he will so far imitate Nature in her wonderful processes, as to produce the vegetable alkaloids, morphia, quina, &c., by the combination of their elements. ”

“ It may be possible that a stronger solution is obtained, but that is not asserted, nor is it important, as that would concern the dose, not the effect of the medicine. The difference, aside from the identity of the preparation, appears to me to be that, in one case experiment will be necessary to ascertain the strength of the tincture, whilst in the other it can be determined more quickly by calculation, but the extra labor required in the process in the later case, more than counterbalances any superiority there may be in this respect. ”

“ But those who confine the benefit of a journal solely to the information it imparts have but a limited view of its usefulness; an account of what is done abroad excites but little emulation compared with far humbler efforts made by our own friends, and in our own neighborhood, and the encouragement and promotion of such efforts is a large good, quite independent of the results that may be attained. ”

“ In reference to the patronage on the part of Physicians of particular apothecaries, we are of opinion, as a general rule, that Graduates in Pharmacy should be encouraged in preference to others of the same date of business, and whilst admitting the abstract right of the physician to send his prescription where he pleases, we think that justice should dictate the propriety of his encouraging the nearest apothecary deserving of his confidence and that of the patient. ”

“ When accidentally or otherwise, a deteriorated, or adulterated drug or medicine is sent to the apothecary, he should invariably return it to the druggist, with a statement of its defects. What is too frequently considered as a mere error of trade on the part of the druggist becomes a highly culpable act when countenanced by the apothecary; hence, when repetitions of such frauds occur, they should be exposed for the benefit of the profession. ”