I9I2] Editoriais 527 



demonstrable difference between phenacetin and acetphenetidin is 

 the price. Verhtim sat sapienti! [Journal of the Anverican Med- 

 ical Association, igi2, Iviii, p. 787; March 16.] 



Four years ago, when the Constitution of the American Society 

 of Biological Chemists was adopted, the following provision was 

 ratified by a large majority : 

 Professional code Any member who may grant the use of his 



of ethics name for (a) the advertisement of a patent 



medicine, a proprietary food preparation, or any other commercial 

 article of doubtful value to the pubHc or possibly harmful to the 

 pubHc health, or (b) who may concede its use for the purpose of 

 encouraging the sale of individual samples (of any such product) 

 that he has not examined, shall forfeit his membership.^ 



Members of the Biochemical Society have lately suggested that 

 this Provision be ehminated from the Society's Constitution. We 

 commend to their notice and to the attention of all who think as 

 they do, the following " Report of the Committee of the American 

 Chemical Society, Industrial Division, on Professional Code of 

 Ethics " :2 



Your Committee beg to report that after a careful consideration 

 of the subject it is their belief that a code of ethics should be formu- 

 lated and adopted by the American Chemical Society. 



There are many instances which can be cited of unethical practices 

 among chemists, such as: misleading advertisements and Interviews 

 in papers and magazines ; the lending of certificates for advertising 

 uses ; the misuse of cur science for the purpose of perpetrating f rauds 

 on the public, such as the evasion of a Standard of purity or the 

 sophistication of a product; slovenly and unreliable work sometimes 

 revealed by impossibly low prices for analytical tests ; expert testi- 

 mony of a character discreditable to the witness and to our profes- 



^ Constitution of the American Society of Biological Chemists, Article III, 

 Membership ; Section 4, Forf eiture — A : Proceedings of the American Society 

 of Biological Chemists, 1908, i, p. 85. 



^ Presented at the forty-fifth meeting of the American Chemical Society, 

 Washington, December, 191 1. Reprinted from the Journal of Industrial and 

 Engineering Chemistry, 1912, iv, p. 226. 



