80 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[July 23, 1870. 
By now making a stand and demand for tlieir just due, 
Pharmacists, on entering Government employ, may materially 
strengthen their position, and further tlieir claims to con¬ 
sideration as a professional body. Now is their opportunity, 
it seems a golden one, and the embracing of it cannot too 
strongly be encouraged. It will indeed be a pity if the new 
field for service now opened is allowed to become a refuge for 
the destitute, and I sincerely trust that the subject will at 
once be taken up by those who have it in then* power to 
further the end in view. 
I am, Sir, your obedient servant, 
J. T. D. 
London, 18 th July , 1870. 
Citrate of Magnesia. 
Sir,—I perfectly agree with Mr. Rimmington, that this salt is 
often badly manufactured; but I differ from him in consider¬ 
ing the use of sugar as promoting deficiency of carbonic acid 
in the carbonate of soda. The sugar exercises no chemical 
action whatever on the salt. It is simply used for two ob¬ 
jects: one, to give adhesion to the granules, and the other, 
to impart a zest to the draughts made from the citro-tartrate 
of soda, alias citrate of magnesia. It is owing to the chemi¬ 
cal action which takes place on the addition of the acids to 
the alkali, with a small quantity of water, used for damping, 
that the bicarbonate loses part of its carbonic acid. This is 
absolutely unavoidable, so long as the crude and destructive 
method of damping the acids and alkali together is adopted. 
The carbonate of soda also parts with some of its carbonic 
acid during the process of drying. This additional loss might 
be prevented, if a proper degree of heat were applied dining 
the granulation. The manufacture of citrate is generally 
intrusted to mere laboratory porters, who have no knowledge 
whatever of the influence of heat upon chemical compounds, 
or the degree requisite in particular cases. To expedite their 
work, they apply an excessive amount of steam to the drying- 
pan. As this salt is fast displacing the ordinary seidlitz 
powders, it is to be regretted that its manufacturers still pur¬ 
sue their ordinary and destructive method. A better product 
might be obtained by damping the acids and alkali separately, 
and applying a proper degree of heat in granulating. An¬ 
other point worthy of remark is the fact, that nine-tenths of 
the people who use the citro-tartrate, generally put the water 
into the glass first, and the salt upon the surface. The salt 
ought first to be placed at the bottom of the glass, and the 
water poured upon it. No directions of this nature are given 
on the manufacturer’s labels. 
J. Hughes. 
High Street, Cheltenham, July 15 th, 1870. 
Anonymous Writing. 
Sir,—I mean to append my name to this letter, and there¬ 
fore may, even by those who object to anonymous writing, 
the subject having “ cropped up,” be allowed to say a few 
words in favour of it. 
First, however, I agree that— 
Nothing personal, or at all affecting injuriously the moral 
character of private individuals, should be admitted in print 
without the name of the writer; 
Nor any general attack be permitted to be so made upon 
the motives or capabilities of any person or society, public or 
private. 
There may also be this further objection taken by editors 
of periodicals to anonymous letters, that, being without a 
name, they may be necessitated to do what they have hardly 
time for, i. e. read them through carefully. 
But.this one great advantage—of an essay relying solely 
upon its own merits, unaided and unobscured alike by the 
addition of a well-known or of an unknown name—can be 
secured in no other way than by anonymous publication. 
I do not know, nor care to know, how often a novel idea, 
an unpopular sentiment, or individual partiality or dis lik e, 
may have consigned a well-written and telling article to the 
waste-basket, because unintroduced and unrecommended by 
a name, but it needs small knowledge of human nature to 
feel assured that this must often be the case. And who 
knows not the power of a name to give currency and weight 
to the dullest mediocrity ? 
Let me suppose—I am sure these gentlemen will pardon 
the supposition—that it were possible for a Redwood, an 
Ince, or a Squire to write nonsense; would a communication 
signed by one of them be either refused insertion on this 
account, or operate as fairly upon the mass of readers as it 
would if unweighted by the influence of an eminent name ? 
On the other hand, it is next to impossible impartially to 
criticize and examine in print the demerits of such a produc¬ 
tion otherwise than anonymously. Men usually, if not 
always, require the stimulus of a sense of personal affront or 
injury—of private or public animosity—to stir them up to 
array themselves in open antagonism to a high reputation or 
deserved eminence. Yet those who have attained both may 
err, and if they do, their very superiority only makes it the 
more needful that errors upheld by commanding influence 
should be impartially exposed, without fear and without 
favour. Import, however, the element of personal feeling, 
and farewell to anything like fair criticism, or cool and im¬ 
partial judgment. 
This one consideration alone (there are others) should, I 
think, arrest in some degree the tide of this present, almost 
universal, crusade against anonymous correspondence in 
public prints, and moderate the zeal of those who engage in 
it, and, at the same time, desire not merely to give, but to 
listen to, unbiassed opinion. 
Politically, I am not afraid of the ballot, but I conceive 
that question to rest on an entirely different basis. I am 
not here advocating the moral cowardice of hiding one’s 
name from fear of personal consequences, but the advantage 
which would accrue to the cause of truth from the absence 
of suspicion of personal interest or motive on the one hand, 
and on the other of a fair and free investigation of facts and 
arguments. 
Of two kinds of anonymousness (I must coin the word), 
—that in which the correspondent’s name is unknown even 
to the editor he addresses, and that which conceals it from 
the public only,—I am here treating chiefly of the former. 
And I will go the length of saying, that if a writer of note 
wishes to ascertain his own true weight in the scale of public 
estimation, or whether he has gained or lost ground in an 
opinion which he values, he should occasionally, not only 
only omit his name, but likewise employ an amanuensis. 
I am, Sir, yours respectfully, 
Thomas Lowe. 
Liverpool, July Y&th, 1870. 
George JS. Clarice (Woburn).— 
1. Entry is not necessary in the cases mentioned, neither 
is the signature of the purchaser required by the Act. 
2. The articles referred to are not included in both Parts 
of the Schedule, but only in Part I. Part II. refers to Tinc¬ 
tures, and all vesicating liquid preparations of Cantharides, or 
preparations of Corrosive Sublimate. It is only necessary to 
label these. 
3. No. 
JR. Jones Owen. —The book referred to has not been 
received. 
It- It. (Leighton Buzzard) wishes £ *' Echo ” to favour him 
with the correct rendering of the sentence criticized at page 
60 of the last number. 
C. Brook, jun. (Southville) inquires if a c Flora of Hamp¬ 
shire ’ is to be procured; if so, where and at what cost? 
Label (Maidenhead) shall be answered by post. 
A. Z. (Liverpool) will find some information in chapter 8 
of ‘ The Practice of Perfumery.’ 
B. B. S. (Norwich) wishes to learn who is the maker of 
“ Symond’s Ale Preserver.” 
J. It. 31. (Witham) should write to the Secretary of the- 
Royal College of Surgeons, Lincoln’s I rm Fields, 
B. J. (Southport).—1. Next week. 2. The o is short in 
the word podophyllin. 
A Country M.F.S .—If the writer will favour us with his 
name and address, we will write to him. 
31. F. S. (Liverpool).—The dose is large, but, failing to 
see the prescriber, we think it might be dispensed with 
safety. The case was probably that of haemorrhage. 
Instructions from 3Iemhers and Associates respecting the 
transmission of the Journal should be sent to Elias Brem- 
ridge, Secretary, 17, Bloomsbury Square, W.C. 
Advertisements to 3Iessrs. Churchill, Hew Burlington 
Street, London, W. 
