442 
Progress  in  Pharmacy. 
/Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
1  September,  1908. 
and  it  was  on  motion  agreed  to  favor  the  reintroduction  of  the  bill 
at  the  next  session  of  the  State  Legislature. 
The  active  interest  that  has  been  manifested  in  organization  work, 
promises  well  for  the  annual  meetings  of  the  National  Associations 
to  be  held  during  the  coming  month.  From  present  indications 
these  meetings  will  all  be  of  unusual  interest  and  importance.  While 
the  wholesale  druggists  are  thoroughly  well  organized  and  will 
probably  devote  their  meeting  to  the  routine  discussion  of  practical 
subjects,  there  is,  in  connection  with  both  the  American  Pharma- 
ceutical Association  and  the  National  Association  of  Retail  Drug- 
gists an  evident  feeling  that  reorganization  along  broader  and  more 
comprehensive  lines  would  be  of  advantage  to  the  associations  them- 
selves and  be  a  powerful  factor  for  securing  for  pharmacists  and 
retail  druggists  the  recognition  that  is  rightfully  due  them. 
British  Patent  Law. — The  revision  of  our  own,  admittedly  liberal, 
patent  laws  has  long  been  agitated  by  pharmacists  and  others 
interested  in  the  trade  in  chemicals  for  use  in  medicine.  An  impor- 
tant precedent,  that  may  be  of  use  as  an  argument  in  future  agita- 
tions along  these  lines,  is  to  be  found  in  the  law  recently  enacted  in 
Great  Britain  which  will  virtually  compel  the  foreign  holders  of  an 
English  patent  to  produce  the  protected  article  in  Great  Britain 
within  a  specified  time,  or  forfeit  all  property  rights  in  the  patent. 
Preventive  Medicine — The  call  to  health,  as  it  has  been  so  aptly 
paraphrased,  is  attracting  widespread  attention.  The  success  that 
has  attended  past  efforts  to  restrict  the  spread  of  diseases  has 
stimulated  renewed  effort,  on  the  part  of  medical  men,  to  spread  the 
knowledge  of  well-known  facts  relating  to  hygiene  and  sanitation. 
The  economic  value  of  public  health  work  has  been  recognized  in  a 
practical  way,  by  both  of  the  large  political  parties,  and  it  is  quite 
evident  that  never  before,  in  the  history  of  this  country,  has  the  de- 
mand for  a  rational  supervision  of  public  health  measures  been  so 
much  in  evidence  as  now. 
Medical  College  Mergers. — The  Journal  of  the  American  Medical 
Association  (July  8,  1908,  page  229)  announces  that  in  less  than 
three  years  twenty-three  medical  colleges  have  united  their  forces  to 
form  nine  larger  and  stronger  ones. 
This  merger  of  the  medical  schools  has  been  the  direct  outcome 
of  the  activity  that  has  been  displayed  by  the  Council  on  Medical 
Education  of  the  American  Medical  Association.    There  can  be  no 
