Am;hfnTi9iSaim'}  Amcr'lcan  Pharmaceutical  Association.  287 
With  reference  to  the  sale  of  alcoholic  beverages,  pharmacists  should 
recognize  that  the  time  has  arrived  when  it  has  become  necessary  for  them 
to  clearly  establish  their  position  in  the  eye  of  the  public  that  they  are 
pharmacists,  and  not  rum  sellers.  They  should  be  willing  to  eliminate  from 
their  business  all  sales  of  alcoholic  beverages  for  any  purpose  whatsoever. 
The  bill  to  regulate  the  manufacture  and  sale  of  smoking  opium  is  not 
rigid  enough,  it  should  provide  for  the  abolishment  of  all  such  practices 
and  provide  heavy  penalties  in  each  and  every  case. 
The  bill  providing  for  the  regulation  of  the  sale  of  habit-forming  drugs 
in  interstate  commerce,  whereby  the  sale  of  narcotic  and  habit-forming 
drugs  interstate  commerce  can  be  better  regulated  and  controlled,  should 
be  supported,  it  should  be  the  aim  of  every  pharmacist  to  put  a  stop  to 
the  sale  of  all  such  drugs  except  for  legitimate  purposes  and  under  proper 
regulation. 
The  following'  is  an  abstract  of  the  Report  of  the  Committee 
on  Weights  and  Measures : 
Dr.  S.  W.  Stratton,  Director  of  the  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Standards, 
Department  of  Commerce  and  Labor.  Washington,  D.  C,  furnished  the 
chairman,  at  his  request,  a  pamphlet  on  "  The  International  Metric  System 
of  Weights  and  Measures,"'  which  was  expressly  prepared  to  answer  some 
of  the  more  simple  questions  addressed  to  the  Bureau  of  Standards  in 
regard  to  the  metric  system  and  its  use.  This  pamphlet  gives  a  concise 
history  of  the  metric  system,  the  names  of  the  countries  giving  govern- 
mental support  to  the  system,  a  synopsis  of  the  system,  and  tables  and 
diagrams  showing  a  comparison  of  metric  and  customary  units.  And  it 
is  believed  that  this  pamphlet  would  furnish  an  excellent  basis  for  an 
article  intended  for  educational  purposes,  whether  circulated  among  phar- 
macists, physicians  or  others. 
The  Bureau  of  Standards  has  also  gotten  out  a  large  chart  showing 
the  relation  of  the  three  metric  units  to  one  another,  and  in  turn  to  the 
customary  units  employed.  This  chart  would  be  especially  useful  in  schools 
of  pharmacy  and  medicine,  and  in  other  educational  institutions  where 
the  subject  of  weights  and  measures  is  taught. 
In  fact,  the  chairman  is  of  the  opinion  that  most  effective  educational 
work  leading  to  the  general  approval  of  the  metric  system  can  be  accom- 
plished by  getting  teachers  in  the  public  schools  to  lay  more  stress  on  the 
advantages  of  the  metric  system,  and  to  give  practical  exercises  using  the 
actual  measures  and  weights.  In  fact,  the  question  of  the  adoption  of  the 
metric  system  universally  in  the  United  States  could  not  long  be  de- 
layed when  once  the  pupils  in  our  schools  have  learned  to  actually  use 
metric  weights   and  measures. 
It  is  rather  remarkable  that,  as  shown  in  the  pamphlet  already  referred 
to,  when  the  use  of  the  metric  system  is  required  in  the  Medical  Depart- 
ments of  the  Army  and  Navy,  and  in  the  U.  S.  Public  Health  and  Marine- 
Hospital  Service,  and  beside  legalized  in  the  Philippine  Islands  and  made 
