EDITORIAL. 
573 
it  requires  six  grains  iO  act  as  an  ordinary  cathartic,  while  that  of  Merrell 
requires  only  half  a  grain  to  a  grain  and  a  half,  thus  proving  the  latter  to 
contain  three  or  four  times  as  much  of  medicinal  activity  of  the  root,  as  the 
former." 
The  alocsin  of  Robiquet,  and  the  aloin  of  the  Messrs.  Smith,  of  Edin- 
burg,  are  described  in  detail  in  separate  chapters,  without  any  allusion  to 
their  discoverers ;  and  so  of  other  principles. 
In  speaking  of  ethereal  oil  (extract)  of  capsicum,  Dr.  King  states  that 
it  is  frequently  filled  with  "  crystals  of  capsicin  in  dendroid  forms."  These 
apparent  crystals  are  the  solid,  fatty  matter  which  separates  from  the  ethereal 
extract,  and  which  has  been  described  by  Dr.  Plummer,  of  Richmond,  Ind. 
(Amer.  Jour,  Pharm.  vol.  24  page  32.,)  Pure  capsicin  has  never  yet  been 
isolated  ;  the  so-called  capsicin*  of  Bracconot,  is  a  mixture  of  principles. 
(See  U.  S.  Disp.  10th  edition.) 
So  far  as  our  examination  has  extended,  we  cannot  find  a  single  instance 
in  this  work  of  a  real  chemical  analysis  of  eclectic  origin,  and  the  obscure 
and  ignorant  manner  in  which  writers  in  the  eclectic  journals  announce 
and  describe  their  discoveries,  goes  to  corroborate  this.  The  numerous 
plants  which  are  brought  forward  as  eclectic  remedies,  embrace  many  of 
undoubted  value,  and  which  owe  their  virtues  to  distinct  principles — chemi- 
cally distinct — these  afford  an  ample  field  for  discovery.  Let  correct  chemi- 
cal research  be  applied,  and  the  impure  compounds  which  now  figure  as 
"  principles,"  and  which  are  a  stigma  on  the  science  of  the  Eclectics,  will 
soon  give  way  to  the  true,  active,  proximate  principles  where  these  exist. 
The  graduates  of  the  Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy  have  done  more 
in  this  field,  than  any  other  class  of  investigators,  in  the  pages  of  the 
American  Journal  of  Pharmacy,  witness  the  analyses  of  Lobelia,  Hydrastis, 
Podophyllum,  Rhus,  Populus,  Yeratrum,  Prunus,  etc. 
Having  been  thus  candid,  as  regards  some  of  the  short-comings  of  Dr. 
King's  book,  it  would  ill  become  us  to  pass  over  the  real  merits  of  the 
work,  which  embodies  a  large  number  of  facts  of  a  therapeutical  character, 
which  deserves  to  be  studied.  Many  of  these  are  crude,  but  yet  are  capable 
of  being  advantageously  adopted  by  physicians,  expecially  country  physi- 
cians who  have  the  advantage  of  more  easily  getting  the  plants.  To  trace 
much  of  this  knowledge  to  its  original  germs,  we  should  have  to  go  back  to 
the  Indian  tribes  and  the  early  settlers  of  the  West,  who  learned  from  them, 
or  by  accident,  the  virtues  of  a  large  number  of  our  native  plants.  Quack 
doctors  and  herb  doctors  have  aided.  We  have  only  to  look  back  in  the 
history  of  regular  Therapeutics,  to  find  a  similar  origin  of  the  knowledge  of 
some  of  its  valuable  remedies ;  and  it  is  but  the  other  day,  since  the  igno- 
rance of  a  negro  slave  started  the  train  of  circumstances,  which  developed 
the  remarkable  qualities  of  the  Gelseminum  of  our  Southern  States,  and 
which  now  figures  in  the  list  of  substances  "  strictly  eclectic."  The  atten- 
tion which  is  now  being  given  by  the  Eclectics,  in  classifying  and  arranging 
facts  and  observations  relative  to  American  plants,  will  certainly  be  at- 
tended with  excellent  results  ;  and  we  may  look  for  their  greater  progress 
