EDITORIAL. 
283 
Others  corroborated  this  view,  when,  after  some  further  debate,  on  mo- 
tion of  James  T.  Shinn,  it  was  ordered  that  a  copy  of  the  resolutions 
adopted  above  be  sent  to  the  Philadelphia  County  Medical  Society,  to 
the  College  of  Physicians,  and  to  the  Chairman  of  the  Judiciary  Commit- 
tee of  the  Legislature. 
On  the  20th  of  March  a  special  meeting  of  the  County  Medical  Society 
was  held  at  the  hall  of  the  College  of  Physicians  in  reference  to  the  bill 
for  the  prevention  of  the  adulteration  of  drugs,  a  full  report  of  which  ap- 
peared in  one  of  the  public  papers  on  Monday,  the  22d.  Dr.  Knight, 
President,  in  the  Chair. 
Dr.  Cummiskey,  author  of  the  first  bill  for  a  State  Inspector,  opened 
the  debate  by  a  short  history  of  the  defeat  of  the  first  bill,  which  he  attrib- 
uted to  the  druggists,  and  referred  to  the  bill  of  Mr.  Rogers  (the  second 
bill),  which  was  read. 
Dr.  Stetler  objected  to  the  bill,  as  not  providing  for  an  inspector  of 
drugs. 
Dr.  Cummiskey  replied  that  the  law  could  not  be  passed  with  an  inspect- 
orship. 
Dr.  Stetler  asked  whether  the  State  Society  had  given  the  committee 
discretionary  power  to  ask  a  bill  without  an  inspectorship.  He  thought 
not,  and  he  objected  to  the  making  it  the  duty  of  physicians  to  be  spies 
and  informers  on  the  druggists.  With  this  provision  he  doubted  its  effi- 
cacy, as  not  one  in  ten  thousand  would  perform  the  service.  He  had 
attended  the  meeting  of  druggists  the  other  evening,  and  found  a  willing- 
ness to  have  a  law  relative  to  adulterated  drugs,  but  that  they  objected 
to  both  bills  that  had  been  read,  and  especially  to  the  harsh  manner  in 
which  they  had  been  treated  by  the  Press  newspaper. 
Dr.  Cummiskey  did  not  believe  that  it  would  do  to  join  with  the  drug- 
gists and  ask  a  bill  of  the  Legislature,  as  no  bill  could  be  offered  that 
would  be  acceptable  to  them  and  to  physicians. 
Dr.  O'Hara  then  read  a  preamble  and  resolutions  which  reflected  on 
the  druggists  for  offering  any  law  for  abating  adulteration,  which  sustained 
the  action  of  the  State  Medical  Society,  and  invited  the  people  to  side 
with  the  medical  profession  to  urge  the  passage  of  the  bill. 
Pending  a  vote  being  taken,  Drs.  Stetler  and  Hamilton  advised  co- 
operation with  the  druggists,  in  which  a  majority  concurred. 
The  bill  was  again  read,  by  request,  when  Dr.  Burns,  of  the  Army,  made 
a  speech  approving  the  bill,  except  that  there  was  no  agent  to  carry  it 
out.  He  wanted  a  controlling  power  to  enter  the  laboratory  and  see 
what  the  manufacturing  chemist  is  doing,  to  see  how  he  is  making  his 
quinine  and  morphia,  and  whether  all  is  right  that  goes  into  them.  So, 
also,  the  herborists  who  supply  our  indigenous  herbs  and  roots  should  be 
looked  after.  The  law  would  be  a  failure  without  some  such  power.  In 
fact,  Dr.  Burns  was  for  putting  the  axe  to  the  root  of  the  tree;  but  it  is 
greatly  to  be  feared  that  when  he  sets  out  to  do  it  he  will  have  as  much 
difficulty  in  finding  the  root  as  he  will  in  applying  the  axe. 
