EDITORIAL. 
471 
It  appears  that  this  mixture  had  been  repeatedly  dispensed  without 
ignition,  but  on  this  occasion  the  physician  called  and  requested  double 
the  quantity  to  be  prepared,  and  the  pharmaceutist  accidentally  used  on 
this  occasion  a  new  wedgewood  mortar,  with  rough  surface,  first  powder- 
ing the  chlorate  and  then  adding  the  other  ingredients,  and  continuing 
the  trituration — when  a  violent  explosion  occurred,  injuring  his  hands 
and  burning  his  face  and  eyes  seriously.  Our  correspondent  believed 
that  the  physician  was  aware  of  the  explosive  nature  of  the  mixture,  as 
he  is  reported  to  have  said  immediately  afterwards  "  that  lie  knew  that 
the  mixture  as  ordered  would  explode,^^  he  being  the  first  physician  called 
in.  If  this  was  true,  it  leaves  an  inference  of  motive  in  regard  to  the 
prescriber  not  to  be  envied.  It  would  have  been  quite  right  to  have 
given  a  caution  to  have  saved  himself  from  the  charge  of  ignorance  or 
design.  Our  correspondent,  smarting  under  the  effects,  may  be  warped 
in  his  feelings  toward  the  prescriber.  With  this  we  have  nothing  to  do, 
but  may  embrace  the  occasion  to  ofTer  to  our  readers  who  are  not  posted 
in  such  matters,  a  caution  that  any  organic  substance  having  a  large 
equivalent  of  loosely  combined  elements  like  sugar,  tannin,  several  of  the 
glucosides  and  other  neutral  bodies  should  always  be  mechanically  united 
with  chlorate  of  potassa  with  great  caution,  and  the  chlorate  should  be 
powdered  alone  and  then  mixed  with  the  other  ingredients,  separately 
powdered,  on  paper.  Physicians,  where  they  require  such  mixtures,  and 
themselves  are  aware  of  the  danger,  are  not  without  culpability  if  they 
prescribe  at  random,  without  due  precaution,  on  the  presumption  that  every 
dispenser  is  a  thorough  chemist.  If,  as  is  more  frequently  the  case,  they 
prescribe  in  ignorance  of  the  incompatible  character  of  the  ingredients, 
they  of  course  are  not  to  blame.  When  such  ingredient*s  can  be  mixed 
without  damage,  every  apothecary  ought  to  be  able  to  do  it,  yet  igno- 
rance of  particular  reactions  in  such  a  case  should  not  necessarily  be  con- 
sidered unjustifiable  ignorance.  We  have  had  this  accident  to  occur 
under  our  own  supervision,  but  the  operator  being  aware  of  the  liability, 
used  precautions  that  enabled  him  to  escape  uninjured. 
The  Pharmacist. — We  are  in  receipt  of  two  numbers  of  the  new 
volume  of  this  Journal,  now  under  the  editorial  supervision  of  our  friend 
Albert  E.  Ebert,  Mr.  Sargent  having  virtually  retired  as  he  announced. 
The  Pharmacist  sustains  its  character  so  well  begun  in  the  first  volume. 
The  present  Editor  has  the  energy,  perseverance  and  knowledge  requisite 
to  make  it  a  first  class  journal,  and  the  busmess  men  of  Chicago  have 
shown  their  tact  in  transferring  its  support  from  the  subscribers  to  the 
advertisers,  its  subscription  being  remarkably  low.  The  advertising 
sheets,  therefore,  are  a  very  important  part  of  the  issue,  and  are  Edited, 
we  presume,  by  Mr.  T.  Whitfield,  of  Chicago.  This  plan  of  having  a 
business  editor  for  the  advertising  department,  carried  out  so  success- 
