October, 1880. 
THE CHEMIST AND DRUGGIST. 
41 
INDEX TO LITERARY CONTENTS. 
PAGE 
Leading Article— 
American Bogus Diplomas 41 
Tiie Month 41 
Meeting — 
The Pharmacy Board of Victoria 42 
PAGE 
Ballarat 43 
The First Annual Report of the Phar- 
maceutical Society of New Zealand . . 43 
Melbourne International Exhibition .... 44 
Social Science Congress 45 
page 
Personalities 4G 
The Pharmacy Board Election 46 
Correspondence 46 
The Apollo Candle Company 47 
Notes and Abstracts 47 
Cfje €j)emtst aittr Druggist. 
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BIRTH. 
Francis.— On the 3rd November, at 43 St. Vincent-place South, the wife of 
Henry Francis of a son. 
M‘Farlane. — On the 28th October, at 72 Smith-street, Collingwood, the 
wife of R. J. M'Farlane, chemist, of a son. 
MARRIAGE. 
Grace — Mackennal. — On the 20th October, at St. Peter’s, Melbourne, by 
the Rev. Canon Handheld, J. F. F. Grace, only son of J. F. Grace, M.D., 
M.R.S.E., West Melbourne, to Henrietta, only daughter of J. S. Mac- 
kennal, sculptor, 198 Collins-street East and Jolimont. 
AMERICAN BOGUS DIPLOMAS. 
It has long been a matter of surprise to observers as to 
how certain uneducated or imperfectly educated people 
contrived to get their credentials as medical practitioners. 
It has been generally understood that at some second-rate 
and obscure universities in Europe diplomas were granted 
in absentia on payment of certain fees ; but that de- 
moralising practice has ceased. It would seem, however, 
that in some of the States of the great republic of 
America “bogus diploma manufacture” has, under the 
sanction of the Legislature (State charter !), been carried on 
to a disgraceful extent. Pennsylvania, which in former 
years obtained a world-wide and unenviable notoriety for 
having been guilty of “ repudiation,” has, according to the 
editor of the Philadelphia Record , been the seat of this 
manufactory of swindling quacks. The Pharmaceutical 
J ournal gives the following account of the way in which 
this impudent business is or was until very recently car- 
ried on : — 
“ The Philadelphia Record is carrying on the work of 
exposure with great zeal, and is evidently determined to 
spare no effort to tread the swindle out of existence. 
Column after column is filled with lists of persons who are 
alleged to have countenanced these ‘ universities’ and those 
who have obtained diplomas from them. It appears, how- 
ever, that the charters of Buchanan’s colleges are still 
valid, and have been distributed gratuitously among 
coloured voters to influence local elections — that at length 
a committee was appointed by the Senate to investigate 
the scandal, the result being a resolution to repeal the 
charter. But the power of the Senate to repeal it was 
disputed in the law courts by Buchanan, and eventually 
successfully, and in the meanwhile he fell back upon 
another charter that he had obtained for the 4 American 
University,’ which had been overlooked. This contretemps 
seems to have given an impetus and additional audacity 
to the movement, so that when recently the proprietors 
of the Philadelphia Record entered into a compact with 
the legal authorities to find the funds necessary for an 
attempt to break up the system, the agent employed, it is 
said, obtained for a sum equal to about £45 sterling no 
less than eight diplomas from seven ‘ universities’ and 
‘colleges,’ five being for the degree of M.D., and one 
each for those of D.D., LL.D., and D. C.L. 
“The story of the schemes by which several diplomas 
were obtained by the same person under different names 
is very amusing, but cannot be recapitulated here. One 
of the most expensive — having cost twenty-five hours in 
time and £26 in cash — was for the curious degree of 
‘ Master in Electro-Therapeutics,’ and was declared to be 
granted to one ‘ qui bene curriculo studiorum praescripto 
perfunctus est, et quern jus to et rigido examine prius 
habito, hoc gradu dignissimum censuimus.’ The result 
was that Dr. Buchanan and some of his colleagues were 
arrested, he being charged with devising a scheme to 
defraud by means of the post-office of the United States. 
A few days afterwards proceedings were commenced 
against the trustees and officers of the ‘Philadelphia 
University of Medicine and Surgery,’ concerning whom it 
is in evidence that, in conferring degrees upon a person of 
whom they knew nothing except the name, they had made 
an infant two years old an M.D. and LL.D. 
“ Some idea may be formed of the extent to which this 
traffic extended from the statement that when Buchanan 
was arrested the officers discovered on the premises 
nearly half a ton weight of blank diplomas, some of 
them signed by the ‘ faculty’ and prepared for the 
insertion of the names of buyers. Receipts were also 
found showing that fully three thousand diplomas have 
been sold during the past six years, and it is estimated 
that during the last twenty-two years Buchanan has sold 
at least eleven thousand diplomas.” 
Unless a diploma is granted by Harvard, or some such 
old established and reputed seat of learning, we should 
imagine that American certificates will in future be received 
with little respect. 
^he ittonth. 
The following additional names have been added to the list of 
legally qualified medical practitioners in Victoria : — James de 
Burgh Griffith, South Yarra; Edward George Keighly Marks, 
Mornington. 
