812 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[April 8, 1871. 
MEDICINAL PLANTS. 
There are but few plants with which we are ac¬ 
quainted that have not, at some time in the course 
of their history, had a reputed value for the cure of 
some complaint or disease. This is notably the case 
in India and other parts of the tropics. If good for 
no other purpose, they are invariably said to cure 
snake-bites. The reason why so many Indian 
plants of reputed medicinal value are not used in 
this country is, we suspect, not so much on account 
of the want of a proper trial of their properties, as 
to the fact of our having already articles with simi¬ 
lar properties of recognized and proved value. Con¬ 
sidering the number of members of the medical pro¬ 
fession now scattered over India, we might reasonably 
suppose that as good a test of the properties of medi¬ 
cinal plants can be made there as in England. 
Occasionally, however, new medicinal agents are 
brought to this country from various parts of the 
world,—one of the most recent of these introduc¬ 
tions which has come to our notice being a packet 
of sticks of irregular length, each about three-quar¬ 
ters of an inch in diameter, with a thick wliitish- 
grey bark. They are sent under the name of condor 
or vulture cane, and are said to be a valuable medi¬ 
cine in cases of cancer, in the Republic of Ecuador. 
The plants, we are told, grow in the province of 
Loja, but, as nothing but the mere sticks have been 
received, we are unable to give even a clue to their 
botanical affinities. 
Professor Frankland, in his latest report to the 
Registrar-General, states that the quality of the 
Thames water has greatly improved during the past 
month, but that the best water supplied from that 
source still contained more than four times as lame 
O 
an amount of organic elements as that present in 
water obtained from wells sunk into the chalk. 
In a letter which we publish elsewhere, Professor 
Frankland corrects the statement in Mr. Erin’s 
paper, that he regards the amount of nitrates in "water 
as necessarily the result of the oxidation of sewage 
matter, and points out that the data given by him as 
representing antecedent contamination of water are 
reported under the general heading of “ Previous 
Sewage or Animal Contamination (Estimated).” 
As a proof that it is not intended to allow the 
new law for sustaining the better education of 
apothecaries in Baltimore to become a dead letter, 
it is stated that a druggist doing business in the 
western section of that city has been arraigned upon 
the charge of prosecuting his business without having 
undergone the examination prescribed by the Act of 
last year, and fined fifty dollars and costs. 
In reference to the paper on “ Sumbulus Moscha- 
tus,” at page 807, we may remark that a specimen 
of the plant yielding tliis drug has, we believe, been 
received from St. Petersburg, and is now growing 
at Kew Gardens, but has not } T et flowered. 
fnrtmriiil tansartions. 
GLASGOW CHEMISTS AND DRUGGISTS’ 
ASSOCIATION. 
The usual Fortnightly Meeting of this Association was 
held in Anderson’s University, 204, Georges Street, on the 
22nd of March; Mr. Thomas Davison, President, in the 
chair. There was a very large attendance, several medical 
gentlemen being on the platform: D. Frazer, Esq., P.C., 
and Messrs. Beattie, Scott, Peacock, Symington and 
Nelson were elected members. On the motion of Mr. 
J. Fergus Wilson, seconded by Mr. W. R. Kermath, 
a large and influential Committee was appointed to en¬ 
deavour to extend the early closing movement to all 
branches of the drug trade in Glasgow and neighbour¬ 
hood. 
D. Campbell Black, Esq., M.D., was then introduced, 
and delivered an address on “ The Relations of Prescriber 
to Dispenser.” 
Mr. President and Gentlemen,—As a practitioner, a 
comparative stranger in this city, the request that I 
should deliver a short address before the members of 
this Association I received as a compliment. I received 
it in that spirit, on the reflection that it emanated from 
a Society representing now a large and intelligent sec¬ 
tion of the community, and one entitled at the hands of 
the medical profession to the most courteous considera¬ 
tion. If I ask myself on what grounds I merited this 
honour, I confess to feeling somewhat puzzled for an 
explanation, if it be not, perchance, that a report of my 
pugnacity—which let me do myself the justice to inform 
you much belies me—has reached you, and that towards 
the termination of your course of lectures you w^ere soli¬ 
citous of a little mental relaxtion. Be that as it may, it 
is nevertheless true that I hold, on some medical ques¬ 
tions opinions which some are pleased to term extrava¬ 
gant and Utopian. Whether they are entitled to he so 
designated it is not for me to say, while I am satisfied 
that they are the expression of a sincere conviction, and 
that, as such, I have never exhibited timidity in pro¬ 
claiming them, hut have ever regarded personal conse¬ 
quences as of subsidiary moment. Well, Gentlemen, 
you have heard that in the culinary achievement of 
making hare soup, the first part of the process is to 
catch your hare; and having in an evil hour, perchance 
for myself, acceded, so to speak, to the flattering dal¬ 
liance of your secretary, the question of a subject pre¬ 
sented itself. In this several things had to be con¬ 
sidered. Prominently among these, the limited time at 
my disposal; and, again, the desirability that I should 
endeavour to entertain you "with a subject mutually 
familiar. Perhaps you are aware, some of you at least 
are, that in a paper which I read before the Medico- 
Chirurgical Society of this city in October last, and for 
portions of which I had to submit to the usual amount of 
abuse,—a task which I congratulate myself on having 
survived,—I animadverted on some of the relations 
which subsist, in this city, between the dispenser of medi¬ 
cine and the prescriber. The limits of my paper on that 
occasion permitted but a cursory allusion to this im¬ 
portant subject; and it occurred to me that on this occa¬ 
sion which you have done me the honour to place at my 
disposal, I ought profitably to enlarge on that portion of 
the subject treated of in my paper on “ Medical Reform,” 
and endeavour to show, not that the present relations 
between prescriber and dispenser are desirable, but that 
they are extremely unsatisfactory, and that the public 
benefit, and the dignity of the profession, demand of a 
large number of my professional brethren concessions 
which they appear extremely reluctant to make. There 
was a time in the history of medicine when dispensing 
was exclusively in the hands of medical practitioners. 
As medical science extended, and as investigations into 
physiology and pathology were more assiduously prose¬ 
cuted for the purpose of unravelling the hidden sym- 
