v 4 
EDITORIAL. 
was announced, and those who were homeward bound were under 
the necessity of abandoning their task. The next meeting will 
convene in Brooklyn. 
Spelter or Spelterine. —The general pharmacopoe in use by 
the veterinary practitioner of former times—and not very remote 
times either—was doubtless in its scope and completeness, quite 
adequate to the requirements imposed upon it by the contempo¬ 
rary condition and standards of the profession as it might then be 
measured. 
But the world moves, and as was but natural, the develop¬ 
ment and growth of veterinary science, with its constant discov¬ 
eries of new medical means and appliances, has superseded and 
abolished not a few of the panaceas and specifics which were 
once highly esteemed and widely trusted. 
If practitioners in human medicine have taken advantage of 
the numerous discoveries which have in late years rewarded their 
activity in research and experiment, their veterinarian cousins 
have not been far in the rear in the march of progress, and in 
recent times, very few of the novelties which secure favor and 
adoption in the treatment of human maladies fail of speedy adop¬ 
tion and adaptation by those who occupy the related field of vet¬ 
erinary therapeutics. 
As occasion required, we have frequently called the attention 
of our readers to such new drugs as have at intervals secured an 
introduction and establishment into medical practice, and in doing 
this we have been specially desirous, and have taken special pains 
to avoid everything in our remarks which might suggest a sus¬ 
picion of a desire to “ boom undeservedly ” a new article ; and 
while giving to our friends the results of our experience, and at 
the same time leaving to their decision the final verdict as to the, 
value of the article which may be the subject of examination and 
trial, we intend to continue to observe the same rule. 
Spelter, commercially known as spelterine, is a new curative 
agent which has been introduced into our markets, and is said to 
possess sundry excellent healiug properties. This substance is 
sold in the form of a powder, and is a preparation of zinc in its 
purest condition, and as such, may be used as an excellent dress¬ 
ing for some kinds of suppurating wounds. 
