872 
EDITORIAL. 
in  Parliament  was  warmly  advocated  by,  amongst  others,  Dr.  Loewe, 
who  has  resided  and  practised  many  years  in  England  and  the  United 
States. 
In  adopting  the  6th  section,  the  Parliament  resolved  to  request  the 
Federal  Chancellor  to  submit  to  the  Parliament  the  draft  of  a  law  regu- 
lating uniformly  for  the  entire  Confederation  the  plan  of  conducting  the 
apothecary's  business  and  the  sale  of  medicines. 
M.  Mueller,  editor  of  the  Pharmaceutische  Zeitung,  has  sent  a  petition 
to  Parliament  asking  the  final  adoption  of  this  resolution, — not  that  the 
liberation  of  the  practice  of  pharmacy,  which  would  be  the  consequence, 
would  make  medicines  cheaper  or  better,  or  the  distribution  of  stores 
more  favorable,  but  mainly  to  overthrow  the  condition  of  things  brought 
about  by  existing  laws  in  reference  to  the  mortgaging  of  pharmaceutical 
stores,  the  capital  invested  in  which  is  mainly  owned  by  thousands  of 
citizens,  whilst  the  apothecaries  themselves  possess  but  a  small  fraction. 
M.  Mueller  had  received  confidential  information  from  593  proprietors  of 
stores  which  were  purchased  for  the  gross  amount  of  15,662,620  thalers 
(each  70  cts.  gold),  whilst  the  cash  paid  for  the  same  at  purchase  was 
only  4,751,200  thalers,  leaving  10,967,240  thalers  on  mortgage,  and  repre- 
senting a  real  value  of  only  6,855,440  thalers.  Of  these,  35  stores  are  free 
from  debt,  valued  at  304,300  thalers,  leaving  the  actual  excess  of  mort- 
gages over  real  value  of  the  stores  4,416,100  thalers. 
A  calculation  based  upon  these  figures,  to  embrace  the  2905  apotheca- 
ries in  the  Confederation,  makes  the  following  exhibit : 
Mortgage  value  of  2905  apothecary's  stores,  76,745,  212  thalers. 
Amount  paid  for  said  stores,  22,295,507  thalers,  of  which  sum  about 
two-thirds,  =  14,863,670  thalers  were  paid  out  of  the  private  means 
of  the  owners.  The  excess  of  the  mortgages  over  the  real  values  is  21,- 
633,635  thalers,  making  thus  a  total  of  36,507,205  thalers,  in  the  event  of 
the  final  adoption  of  the  clause.  Unless  a  special  law  should  provide  for 
their  relief  and  indemnification,  the  credit  of  pharmaceutists  would  be 
destroyed,  and  the  foreclosure  of  the  mortgages  on  more  than  one-half  of 
the  North  German  apothecaries'  stores  would  render  their  proprietors 
bankrupt.  ' 
The  artificial  value  of  stores  which  this  state  of  things  induces  is  looked 
upon  much  as  we  do  on  the  good  ivill  of  a  business,  and  has  largely  tended  to 
hamper  the  liberty  of  pharmacy  in  Germany.  Those  who  own  the  mort- 
gages, unlike  owners  of  stocks,  expect  to  get  annually  their  regular 
income  without  regard  to  the  profits,  any  deficit  in  which  has  to  be  borne 
by  the  proprietors,  who,  in  bad  circumstances,  are  liable  to  foreclosure. 
It  is  greatly  to  be  desired  that  some  solution  of  this  difficulty  may  be 
arrived  at,  so  as  to  give  greater  independence  of  action  to  proprietors. 
Pharmacy  in  Holland. — The  scarcity  of  apothecaries'  assistants 
(according  to  the  Pharmac.  Zeitung)  has  induced  the  "Netherlands 
