400 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. [November 12, 1870 , 
very few avail themselves of these scientific pharmaceutical 
appurtenances. I would therefore suggest to the notice of 
the Council of the Society the advisability of offering a small 
prize to mechanicians for each of the above articles, making 
the conditions for which the competitors should strive effi¬ 
ciency with economy of price. J. Ross Faulkner. 
LadbroJce Grove Hoad, Nov. 1st, 1870. 
Infusion's of the British Pharmacopceia. 
Dear Sir,—Although I had the pleasure of hearing Mr. 
Barnes read his excellent paper upon infusions at the evening 
meeting of the Society, I did not then notice that he gave the 
Anrious specific gravities of the officinal preparations as com¬ 
pared with those made by maceration for shorter periods. 
Upon reading his paper, as it appeared in the Journal, I 
was astonished to find that the specific gravities published 
ranged from 1-210 to 1-220. 
Surely this must be an error ? 
I should imagine that 1-005 to 1-010 would more accu¬ 
rately represent the specific gravity of the British Pharma¬ 
copoeia infusions. Charles Umney. 
Laboratory, 40, Aldersgate Street. 
Sir,—In answer to your correspondent who has discovered 
that the specific gravity columns in my paper on ‘ Experi¬ 
ments on Some of the Infusions of the Pharmacopoeia,’ are 
incorrect, I find that unfortunately the weight of the bottle, 
207 grains, was omitted to be deducted from the weight of 
the 1000-grain bottle ; therefore, in order to get at the cor¬ 
rect specific gravities, it will be necessary to deduct 207, the 
weight of the bottle, in each case. J. B. Barnes. 
Trevor Terrace, ICnightsbridge, Nov. 8, 1870. 
Trade Morality. 
Sir,—The press is ever ready to take up the cause of jus¬ 
tice and equity. How is it that it has so long passed over 
one of the greatest evils trade has ever known—an evil that 
is working silently, yet surely, the downfall of the middle 
class in England ? Perhaps it is because the evil has no 
name, for we naturally shrink from the harsh names of 
covetousness and dishonesty. Shall we call it an absence of 
good principle, whereby our tradesman, envying his neigh¬ 
bour’s prosperity and livelihood, conceives the idea of under¬ 
selling him in some legitimate article of his trade, in the 
hope thereby of catching a few more herrings at the sacrifice 
of his neighbour’s sprats, which for that piu-pose he sells 
to the public at a non-remunerative price ? 
As the system is rapidly on the increase, would it not be 
well that the public journals should ventilate the subject P 
The public would then be on their guard, and surely could 
not, if they understood it, encourage a system which, instead 
of tending to the general good, must end in the ruin of the 
entire trading class. 
Examples of this system are found in grocers selling 
biscuits, beer and wine; bakers selling tea ; drapers selling 
pictures, teapots, clocks, eau de cologne and general per¬ 
fumery, not at a price which in itself can be remunerative, in 
which case there would not be the same objection, but at a 
price requiring the addition of larger profits on then- own 
legitimate trade to make it pby; the result is that every¬ 
body’s trade in turn is cut up piecemeal, to the injury of all 
and the good of nobody. If this sort of thing continues, pro¬ 
fit will cease to exist, and, as a matter of course, the trades¬ 
man with it, and England must revert to the old feudal 
times when there was no middle class at all, but lords and 
serfs only. 
If that be all that the civilization, education and enlighten¬ 
ment of the nineteenth century can do for us, it becomes a 
question whether we ought not to pause in the excessive 
efforts now being made in the so-called educational depart¬ 
ment, and inquire what results have already been achieved ? 
Possibly some one will reply, “ Oh, it is because we have 
done so little to educate the masses that this demoralization 
prevails.” Is there not evidence that those who do such 
things are educated up to it—for education in the abstract 
contains no moral principle,—that our trading classes are well 
educated, and prostitute that education, and often high abili¬ 
ties, to commercial fraud ? 
Who will deny the education of the Civil Service corps ? 
yet that body, highly enlightened though it may be, en¬ 
couraged and patronized by a larger number of the higher 
class, has instituted a corporation of a nature utterly sub¬ 
versive of all trade principles and practice as hitherto under¬ 
stood, which, if carried out, must pauperize the kingdom 
by the ruin of the middle trading class, well called the back¬ 
bone of the State, paying as it does, not only the largest pro¬ 
portion of the taxes, but the salaries of the very men who 
now seek its overthrow. 
Perhaps to some this subject may seem inappropriate for 
discussion in a scientific journal; but are the professions; 
quite clear of the moral infection which seems to be perme¬ 
ating all modern institutions, whether governments, pro¬ 
fessions, or trades P It is more than doubtful if there is not 
enough in the daily working of our own profession to set us- 
thinking whether there is nothing to amend. Recent com¬ 
munications to your Journal would seem to bear me out in 
this. If in these few lines I have opened a subject for con¬ 
sideration, I shall not have thus far intruded myself on your 
valuable space in vain. w.™™, 
Hampstead. _ Waltde Biggs. 
Caution to the Trade. 
Sir,—In 18G3 a man came, showed me an advertisement 
in a paper, said he wms appointing agents for his rat poison,, 
and if I took a quantity I should be advertised as local agent. 
I did so, and soon afterwards (by a caution in the Journal) I 
found others had been victimized also. 
After closing on Monday I went out, and was surprised 
to find on my return that the rascal had called again, and 
represented to my assistant that I had ordered three dozen* 
to be paid for on delivery. Perhaps you will kindly caution 
the trade again in the J oumal. Henry Long. 
Nigh Street, Notting Hill, Nov. 8, 1870. 
“Audi Alteram Partem ” thinks that the writer in the- 
Lancet, who says that the rate of profit charged in chemists’ 
prices is “much too high,” has fallen into the error of com¬ 
paring pharmacy with other trades, from which it differs in 
the limited demand for the articles supplied, and the superior 
education it requires. While few druggists take £25 a week, 
many grocers and drapers take ten times that amount, and 
consequently they can sell their goods at a much lower rate of 
profit. In no case does the proverb “cheap and nasty” 
prove truer than in the sale of drugs; and it is doubtful whe¬ 
ther, as a rule, cutting druggists get a very much larger 
amount of custom than those who adhere to respectable 
prices. Our correspondent is of opinion that doctors who 
dispense their own medicines prescribe medicine very differ¬ 
ent from that of the non-dispensing physician, and that their 
shelves are often very imperfectly furnished, as would appear 
from a letter lately published in ike Lancet, in which the writer 
says of another practitioner that he did not keep such arti¬ 
cles as glycerine or carbolic acid in stock. 
T. Appleton (Fulham).—The volume will consist of the 
numbers for a year, and the Index will be issued as soon as 
the volume is completed. 
“Inquirer .”—No person would be entitled to call himself 
a Member of the Pharmaceutical Society on going into busi¬ 
ness until he had passed the Major Examination and been 
elected by the Council of the Society. 
S. C. Furmston (Richmond).—The fourth edition of Pe¬ 
reira’s c Materia Medica’ was published in 1854, by Messrs- 
Longmans. The work has been considerably altered and en¬ 
larged since 1840. 
jE. S. Presley (Bristol).—He would be liable. 
G. H. Strickland .—Apply to the Secretary. 
Pharmaceutical Titles .—We have received letters on this 
subject from “An Associate,” L., A. E. J., “'Agitator,” J. C., 
“ Theta,” “Aspirant to the Major,” but as the correspondence 
is closed, we cannot insert them, more especially since they 
do not throw any new light on the questions at issue. The 
latter-named correspondent approves of Mr. Allkins’s idea of 
a petition, but thinks many would be unable to attend a 
meeting in town, and suggests that some one should take the 
initiative by preparing a petition and advertising for signa¬ 
tures to be sent to him. We should advise our correspondent 
to communicate with Mr. Alikins by letter. 
The following journals have been received:—The ‘British 
Medical Journal,’ Nov. 5; the ‘Medical Times and Gazette/ 
Nov. 5; the ‘Lancet,’ Nov. 5; ‘Nature,’ Nov. 3; the ‘Che¬ 
mical News,’ Nov. 4; ‘Journal of the Society of Arts/ Nov- 
3; ‘Gardeners’ Chronicle/ Nov. 5; the ‘Grocer/ Nov. 5; 
the ‘English Mechanic/ Nov. 4; the ‘ Produce Markets Re¬ 
view/ Nov. 5. 
