1012 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[Jane 17,1871 .. 
We would charitably suggest some such condition 
to account for the propensity shown by the Lancet , 
when referring to some topics, to reverse the gene* 
rally received axiom that the lesser is included in 
the greater. We would only just allude to the fact 
that whenever it refers to the poison question it 
speaks as if the number of deaths proved to have 
occurred through the carelessness of pharmacists was 
a very large one; this might be a matter of opinion 
depending upon what constitutes a large number. 
But some of our contemporary's statements are 
not open to tins explanation. A short time ago it 
gravely announced in leader type, in reference to 
infant mortality in France, that' “ out of every tliou- 
“ sand children under a year old, 288, according to Dr. 
“ Bebthillon, perish in the Marne, 295 in the Oise, 
“ 307 in Seine-et-Marne, 813 in Yonne, 318 in Seine 
“ Inferieure, 319 in Eure, and in the department 
“ Eure-et-Loire (dedicated ‘aux petits Parisiens’), 
“ 370 !” And then it naively asks, “ Is not this an 
“ appalling return ?” Well, we rather think it is. 
As a fitting corollary we add another extract 
from the Lancet last week. “ A chemist and drug- 
“ gist at Welshpool, because of some alleged mis- 
statement on his part, had his name removed this 
“ year from the Society’s Begister, with the result 
“ of his being repeatedly sued in the Welshpool 
“ County Court for penalties as an unregistered vendor 
“ of (bugs.” Now as the “ chemist and druggist ” 
with whom the Lancet seems to sympathize has only 
been sued once by the Pharmaceutical Society, and 
the result of that case was hardly known in London 
at the time when it is presumed our contemporary 
went to press, we are compelled to fall back upon 
some such theory as we have suggested, unless indeed 
the Lancet intends to try its hand with the sporting 
papers in the prophetic hue. But then, will not the 
fact that the Court of Queen’s Bench has since decided 
that the person in question is not a “ chemist and 
druggist” at all, have some slight effect upon the 
vaticination ? 
Mr. Bentham, in liis recent Presidential Address 
at the Anniversary Meeting of the Linnean Society, 
said that the mismatching of specimens had been in 
botany a fertile cause of the production of false 
genera and species. The most careful collectors 
have in good faith transmitted flowers and fruits be¬ 
longing to different plants as those of one species: 
the fruits perhaps picked up under a tree from which 
they were believed to have fallen, or under two trees 
in the same forest with similar leaves, one in flower, 
the other in fruit, are supposed to be identical, but in 
fact not even congeners. Mismatching in the sub¬ 
sequent stages of drying, sorting and distributing of 
specimens is also very frequent. Another cause is 
that collectors instead of noting down any memo¬ 
randa at the time, and attaching them immediately 
to the specimens, or identifying them by numbers, 
too often trust to their memory when finally packing 
up them specimens. So long as a hasty glance at a 
specimen and the memoranda attached to it is substi¬ 
tuted for reasoning by analogy, these errors are not 
discovered. Till recently the genus Magallana, of 
Cavanilles, was allowed seriously to invalidate the- 
character of Tropoeolese, the strong internal evidence- 
that it was founded upon the fruit of one Natural 
Order carefully attached to a poor flowering speci¬ 
men of another, being overlooked. 
Mtrcfi has been done of late years in introducing 
medicinal plants of other climes into Indian soil for 
cultivation for commercial purposes. The cinchonas 
have been a grand success, and other experiments, 
we hope, will be equally successful. Though we 
are naturally more interested in plants connected 
with our own branch of science, we can nevertheless 
rejoice at the success of other useful plants; and 
though the following extract of a letter of a corre¬ 
spondent in Southern India bears more immediately" 
upon agriculture, it is, we think, a good indication 
of what we may expect of India at no very distant 
date. Our correspondent says,—“ Agricultural to¬ 
pics have of late received much more attention out 
here than they ever did before. Arrangements are 
pending at Calcutta for a new department of agri¬ 
culture and commerce for India. Model farms are 
also being established in different parts of the coun¬ 
try, to show the native farmers the advantages of 
the European system. The authorities are at last 
beginning to perceive that the native style of culti¬ 
vation is, after all, faulty, and are getting alarmed 
about the land revenue, crops not being so good as 
they used to be. Fuel is getting scarcer every year, 
and the manure is taken as a substitute, thereby 
impoverishing the soil, while artificial manures are 
still unknown to the natives generally.” 
The first of a series of articles, by Dr. B. W. 
Richardson, F.R.S., entitled “ Some Further Addi¬ 
tions to Therapeutics,” appears in the current num¬ 
ber of the Practitioner. In this paper the author 
treats of the organic bromides, viz. bromide of qui¬ 
nine, bromide of morphine, and bromide of strych¬ 
nine, their combinations and administration, and 
hydrobromic ether and bromide of methyl. The 
substance of the article has already appeared in the 
Journal, ante, p. 851. 
We are this week indebted to a correspondent for 
a copy of the Beverley Guardian, containing a full 
account of a recent case of poisoning by arsenic at 
Beverley; we take the opportunity of communicating 
to our readers that we shall always be glad to receive 
from them any similar information on matters of 
interest to pharmaceutists. 
