EDITORIAL. 
477 
medicine;  to  place  the  means  of  obtaining  a  liberal  pharmaceutical  education 
before  the  rising  pharmaceutiats  of  our  country;  to  cultivate  a  taste  for  scien- 
tific investigation  in  our  art,  promote  concert  of  action,  demand  a  higher  grade 
of  quality  in  our  imported  drugs,  and  to  promote  a  greater  degree  of  excellence 
and  uniformity  in  our  preparations. 
Respectfully  submitted. 
DANIEL  HENCHMAN, 
WE  A.  BREWER, 
SAMUEL  M.  COLCORD, 
T.  LARK1N  TURNER, 
JOSEPH  BURNETT. 
Several  of  the  projects  recommended  in  this  report  have  been  carried  into 
effect,  among  them  the  publication  of  a  price  book.  This  consists  of  a 
leather  covered  duodecimo  pamphlet  of  58  pages,  printed  on  letter  paper, 
embracing  the  Materia  Medica  and  the  preparations.  Opposite  each  name 
is  the  price  per  pound,  4  oz.  or  1  oz.,  fixed  upon,  and  the  opposite  page  is 
left  blank  and  ruled  for  the  record  of  changes  and  remarks:  The  object  of 
this  book  is  to  induce  a  concert  of  action  among  the  apothecaries  of  Boston, 
so  as  to  get  uniform  prices  adopted. 
Another  step  is  the  issue  of  prescription  blanks  for  the  use  of  physicians, 
duly  headed  with  place  for  number,  date,  etc.,  and  of  uniform  size.  On  the 
back,  printed  in  small  type,  is  a  correct  list  of  the  members  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts College,  with  their  address  severally,  which  enables  the  physician 
to  know  to  whom  to  send  his  prescriptions  in  each  section  when  he  is  at  a 
loss  to  determine.    These  blanks  are  furnished  to  physicians  gratuitously. 
The  energy  displayed  by  our  New  England  friends  is  highly  praiseworthy, 
and  will  soon  bring  forth  excellent  results. 
Polytechnic  College  of  the  State  of  Pennsylvania. — The  second  an- 
nual announcement  of  this  institution  has  been  received.  To  any  one  ac- 
quainted with  the  practical  fruits  of  the  best  polytechnic  schools  of  Europe, 
in  affording  a  means  of  developing  the  executive  talents  of  young  men  and 
of  fitting  them  for  the  important  stations  requiring  executive  ability,  whether 
in  civil  or  military  engineering,  or  in  agriculture,  mining  or  general  me- 
chanics, the  project  of  establishing  such  a  school  under  the  auspices  of  the 
State  of  Pennsylvania  must  be  satisfactory. 
"  The  establishment  neither  of  a  school  of  Engineering,  nor  of  Mechanics,  nor 
of  Chemistry,  nor  of  Mines,  nor  of  Agriculture  alone,  would  have  fulfilled  the 
object  contemplated  in  the  founding  of  this  institution  :  any  one  might  have  fur- 
nished half-educated  graduates,  but  their  union  in  a  Polytechnic  College  af- 
fords an  education,  solid,  elevated  and  usefully  applicable  in  all  the  higher 
departments  of  construction  and  of  production — one  which  provides  for  a  wider 
range  of  honorable  employment,  than  any  which  has  hitherto  been  afforded. 
"The  wants  of  a  people  should  mould  their  educational  system.  Our  first  great 
duty  and  destiny,  is  to  reclaim  a  continent  to  cultivation  and  civilization. 
Swamps,  fluvial  and  littoral,  are  to  be  drained;  plantations  to  be  irrigated; 
dwellings  to  be  warmed,  lighted  and  ventilated  ;  cities  and  towns  to  be  graded, 
sewered,  and  supplied  with  water  and  gas  ;  rivers  made  navigable  ;  mountains 
tunnelled,  and  the  great  inter-oceanic  lines  of  travel  and  transport  extended  and 
completed;  untold  mineral  and' agricultural  treasures  are  to  be  produced,  and 
