EDITORIAL. 
183 
At  the  meeting  of  the  Drug  Exchange  on  that  day  no  one  knew  anything 
of  the  matter,  and  a  committee  was  appointed,  who  reported  next  day 
that  all  they  could  learn  about  it  was  that  a  Senator  of  Pennsylvania 
wrote  down  to  a  prominent  member  of  the  College  of  Pharmacy,  to 
know  whether  the  bill  before  the  legislature,  which  he  described,  was  ap- 
proved by  the  College,  etc.  The  member  wrote  back  that  the  College 
and  trade  here  knew  nothing  of  it,  that  the  bill  contained  features  that 
would  render  its  working  impracticable,  and  would  not  reach  the  evils  it 
sought  to  cure,  and  further  that  the  National  Pharmaceutical  Association 
had  had  since  September  last  a  large  and  influential  committee  at  work 
preparing  a  law  to  be  presented  to  tfie  legislatures  of  every  State  in  the 
Union  next  winter,  after  it  was  approved  by  the  Association  which  meets 
in  September  next.  This  was  the  only  offence  on  which  the  vituperative 
article  of  the  Press  was  based.  We  have  made  it  our  business  to  query 
of  every  prominent  physician  we  have  met,  and,  as  yet,  not  a  single  one  of 
them  knew  any  thing  about  the  memorial ;  but  we  have  since  learned 
more  than  we  are  disposed  to  repeat  about  the  origin  and  objects  of  the 
bill  to  create  a  fat  office,  the  incumbent  to  be  nominated  by  a  medical 
society  and  appointed  by  the  Governor. 
A  temperate  and  well  written  reply  was  tendered  to  the  Editor  of  the 
Press  for  publication,  which  he  refused  to  receive,  and  subsequently,  after 
being  read  at  the  Drug  Exchange,  that  body  adopted  it,  and  signed  by  its 
officers  it  appeared  in  the  Inquirer  of  Feb.  11th.  The  next  day  the  Drug 
Exchange  issued  a  printed  memorial  directed  "  to  the  Philadelphia  Rep- 
resentatives at  Harrisburg,"  requesting  "  that  copies  of  any  bill  or  bills 
regarding  the  manufacture  and  sale  of  drugs  and  medicines  be  forwarded 
to  that  body,  as  also  to  the  Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy."  "They 
also  respectfully  ask  that  any  proposed  legislation  on  the  subject  be  post- 
poned until  a  proper  representation  of  the  subject  be  made  by  the  Exec- 
utive Board  of  the  Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy."  "It  is  the 
wish  of  this  body,  as  also  of  the  College  of  Pharmacy,  that  such  legisla- 
tion be  effected  as  will  afford  a  real  safeguard  to  the  public  on  the  impor- 
tant subjects  of  Medicines  and  the  Sale  of  Poisons." 
Disappointed  in  their  first  attempt,  another  bill  was  entered,  styled 
"An  Act  to  prevent  adulteration  in  drugs,"  in  four  sections  ;  the  first 
declaring  the  adulteration  of  any  drug  or  medicinal  preparation  to  be  a 
penal  offence,  recognizable  by  the  Court  of  Quarter  Sessions,  with  a 
penalty  fine  not  exceeding  1000  dollars. 
The  second  declares  that  every  person  violating  the  provisions  of  this 
act  may  be  presented  by  the  District  Attorney  to  the  Grand  Jury  for 
indictment,  as  in  other  cases.  So  far  all  is  unobjectionable,  but  section 
third  provides  that  any  resident  physician  of  the  county,  who  is  a  "  gradu- 
ate of  medicine  and  pharmacy,"  may  complain  under  oath  or  affirmation 
before  any  alderman  or  justice  of  the  peace,  that  there  is  reasonable 
ground  for  believing  the  Act  has  been  violated,  said  complainant  may 
