204 



THE ALUM Ml JOURNAL. 



the arts and manufactures, this article 

 has nothing to do; but in regard to me- 

 dicinal compounds the laws should be so 

 changed that while the inventor is not 

 deprived of his rights, and the incentive 

 thereby to original investigation and ex- 

 periment destroyed, a higher ethics de- 

 mands that the community should bear 

 the burden rather than the few. This is 

 the tendency of the times; there are 

 many advocates of the general govern- 

 ment enlarging its powers in thus caring 

 for the welfare of the people. 



Judge Henry B. Brown, in an address 

 delivered before the Graduating Class of 

 Yale College, says: " If the government 

 may be safely entrusted with the trans- 

 mission of our letters and papers, I see no 

 reason why it may not also be entrusted 

 with the transmission of our telegrams and 

 parcels, as is almost universally the case 

 in Europe; or of our passengers and 

 freight, through a State ownership of rail- 

 ways, as in Germany, France, Austria, 

 Sweden and Norway ? If the State owns 

 its highways, why may it not also own 

 its railways ? If a municipality owns its 

 streets and keeps them paved, sewered 

 and cleansed, why may it not also light 

 them, water them, and transport its 

 citizens over them so far as such trans- 

 portation involves a monopoly of their 

 use? Indeed, wherever the proposed 

 business is of a public or semi-public 

 character, and requires special privileges 

 of the State, or a partial delegation of 

 governmental powers — such, for instance, 

 as the condemnation of land, or a special 

 use or disturbance of the public streets 

 for the laying of rails, pipes or wires — 

 there would seem to be no sound reason 

 why such franchises, which are for the 

 supposed benefit of the public, should 

 not be exercised directly by the public." 

 Instead of granting patents for the 

 discovery of new compounds intended to 

 be used as medicines, the government 



should establish a commission to inquire 

 into the merits of all new bodies, to con- 

 fer upon the discoverer a title of distinc- 

 tion, and grant him a royalty for a cer- 

 tain period of years, if his discovery be 

 found meritorious. 



This would insure a reward to the in- 

 ventor that no speculator could rob him 

 of; while the more important considera- 

 tion would be the making public of the 

 manufacture of the new compound, 

 which would soon find its proper level as 

 to price through the ordinary competi- 

 tions of business. 



It would serve the purpose also of 

 stimulating new discoveries, for reward 

 would certainly then await the inventor, 

 and mankind in general would be the 

 gainer in the end. It would have the 

 further effect of sanctioning the use at 

 once of a valuable remedy, which might 

 otherwise remain neglected; on the other 

 hand, it would prevent imposition being 

 practiced upon the public by unscrupu- 

 lous manufacturers. 



The new College Prospectus, of which forty 

 thousand have just been issued, is now ready 

 for distribution. Among the most interesting 

 announcements is the one relating to the Post- 

 Graduate course. This is one of the most im- 

 portant steps ever taken by the College, and 

 one which will redound to her honor. In out- 

 lining the scope of the work to be done, we 

 cannot do better than quote from the Pro- 

 spectus: 



"The course of Post-Graduate instruction, to 

 be inaugurated by this College, is intended for 

 graduates in pharmacy of this or any other 

 college offering equivalent undergraduate in- 

 struction. 



" The instruction will be practical through- 

 out the entire year, hence students must come 

 prepared in the theoretical work preliminary to 

 quantitative chemical analysis, higher phar- 

 macy, pharmacognosy and materia medica." 



Application for the Prospectus should be ad- 

 dressed to the Clerk, Mr. O. J. Griffen, at the 

 College of Pharmacy Building, 115-119 West 

 68th street. 



