86 
EDITORIAL. 
E.  S.  Wayne  being  invited,  exhibited  some  very  interesting  specimens  of 
the  products  of  distillation  of  cannel  coal,  as  also  that  from  the  Seneca  oil. 
All  these  oils  are  hydrocarbons,  and  are  finding  extensive  use  in  the  west 
for  illuminating  and  lubricating  purposes.  The  paraffine  exhibited  by  him, 
as  obtained  from  the  same  coal,  was  very  fine,  and  it  is  supposed  will  at 
some  future  time  take  the  place  of  white  wax  for  many  of  the  pharmaceutical 
purposes  in  which  that  article  is  now  used.  Paraffine  is  now  being  exten- 
sively employed,  with  the  addition  of  a  small  per  centage  of  stearin,  in  mak- 
ing candles.    It  specific  gravity  in  a  pure  state  is  0.850  to  0.890. 
After  various  remarks  from  those  present,  then  adjourned. 
S.  S.  Garrigues,  Sec. 
(Ebitorinl  Department. 
Tilden  &  Co.  and  the  Medical  Journals. — There  was  a  period  within 
the  recollection  of  many,  when  a  large  proportion  of  the  vegetable  ex- 
tracts consumed  in  the  United  States  were  made  with  so  little  regard 
to  the  rules  which  should  guide  the  manufacturer  in  their  preparation, 
that  they  but  illy  represented,  in  many  instances,  the  drugs  from  which 
they  were  prepared.  About  ten  or  twelve  years  ago,  the  Tildens,  acci- 
dentally becoming  possessed  of  the  shop  and  material  of  a  seceder  from 
the  Shaker  community,  at  New  Lebanon,  N.  Y.,  after  considering  what 
was  the  best  disposition  to  make  of  it,  determined  to  continue  the  business 
of  cultivating  medicinal  plants  for  the  supply  of  pharmaceutists  and  drug- 
gists, and  preparing  vegetable  extracts  from  the  same.  They  soon  saw 
the  advantages  that  would  arise  to  the  medical  profession,  and  conse- 
quently to  their  firm,  if,  for  the  crude  processes  then  employed  by  the 
Shakers,  they  could  substitute  the  vacuum  pan,  and  after  considerable 
outlay  and  exertions,  succeeded  in  producing  extracts  by  this  process 
greatly  superior  to  those  by  the  old  process.  The  example  thus  set  by 
T.  &  Co.  was  soon  followed  by  the  Shakers  and  others,  and  there  is  no 
doubt  at  all  that  the  general  character  of  this  class  of  preparations  is 
much  better  than  it  was  fifteen  years  ago,  largely  through  their  agency. 
The  enterprise  of  Messrs.  Tilden  did  not  find  sufficient  scope  to  satisfy 
it  in  the  class  of  preparations  to  which  we  have  alluded.  Fluid  extracts 
coming  into  use,  they  seized  the  idea  of  supplying  these  too,  made  by  their 
vacuum  apparatus,  and  have  manufactured  them  in  great  variety.  Here 
has  been  one  source  of  trouble.  The  indiscriminate  application  of  a  par- 
ticular process  to  a  great  variety  of  drugs  of  varied  constitution,  requires 
an  intimate  acquaintance  with  the  constituents  of  these  drugs,  and  their 
relation  to  menstrua  and  preservative  agents,  so  as  not  only  to  extract  the 
m 
