142 
Editorial. — Reviews,  etc. 
(  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
t      Mar.,  1881. 
PharMxVCEutical  Legislation. — The  law-makers  are  again  at  work 
in  many  States  of  the  Union  and,  as  usual,  a  large  number  of  laws,  good,  bad 
mid  indifferent,  are  under  consideration.  A  pharmacy  law  has  been  passed 
in  W.  Virginia  on  February  21,  and  similar  laws  are  before  the  legislatures 
of  Missouri,  Illinois,  Connecticut,  Massachusetts  and  Pennsylvania.  In  the 
former  three  States  we  understand  the  laws  are  likely  to  pass ;  in  Massa- 
chusetts, strange  to  say,  much  opposition  has  arisen  on  the  part  of  a  num- 
ber of  jjliarmacists  and  druggists  in  Boston.  In  Pennsylvania  the  ))ill 
which  was  drawn  up  by  a  Committee  of  the  Pennsylvania  Pharmaceutical 
Association,  was  reported  back  to  the  House  by  the  Committee  on  the 
Judiciary  general,  with  a  negative  recommendation,  but  it  has  been  recom- 
mitted and  may  probably  come  up  for  consideration.  In  the  Senate  of  the 
Pennsylvania  legislature  there  is  i^ending  a  very  simple  but  very  stringent 
pharmacy  bill,  allowing  onli/  graduates  in  pharmacy  to  compound  physi- 
cian's prescriptions;  at  the  same  time,  the  Committee  of  the  Judiciary 
local,  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  has  reported  favorably  a  pharmacy 
bill  for  cities  of  the  second  class  (Pittsburg  and  Allegheny).  It  would 
seem  that,  as  far  as  Pennsylvania  is  concerned,  these  were  laws  enough 
affecting  pharmacy,  but  in  addition  to  those  mentioned,  there  is  to  be 
another  law,  compelling  physicians  to  write  their  prescriptions  in  plain 
English  and  without  abbreviation ;  and  still  another  law,  compelling 
pharmacists  and  druggists  to  write  or  print  the  names  of  all  medicines 
(which  would  include  those  furnished  on  prescriptions)  on  the  outside  of 
the  vials,  etc.,  in  the  English  language  and  without  abbreviations. 
The  enemies  of  the  use  of  Latin  in  prescriptions  have  been  silent  for  a 
number  of  years;  in  the  Journal  for  1871,  p.  141,  and  for  1872,  p.  89,  will 
be  found  some  remarks  on  this  subject;  since  then,  feeble  efforts  have  been 
occasionally  made  in  one  or  two  States  to  consign  pharmacopoeial  Latin  to 
an  untimely  grave;  the  presenc,  as  it  seems  to  us,  more  vigorous  effort,  than 
for  some  years  past,  will  doubtless  meet  with  the  fate  of  the  former  ones. 
In  California,  it  seems,  a  pharmacy  bill  has  also  been  before  the  legisla- 
ture with  very  little  prospect  of  passing  it.    We  have  not  seen  a  copy  of  it. 
EEVIEWS  AND  BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTICES. 
Heport  of  the  Commissioner  of  Agriculture  for  the  year  1879.  Washington  : 
Government  Printing  Office.    1880.    8vo,  i)p.  621. 
This  report  contains  a  large  amount  of  statistical,  practical  and  scientific 
information  on  subjects  connected  with  agricultural  pursuits,  which  is 
rendered  more  useful  by  over  sixty  plates,  a  number  of  them  colored.  A 
large  number  of  analyses  are  reported  of  grasses,  fodderjDlants,  juices  of 
sugar  canes  and  other  substances,  some  of  which  may  possibly  be  of  med- 
ical importance,  like  the  seeds  of  So2:>hora  sericea^  Nutt.,  from  which  an 
alkaloid  was  obtained  that  seems  to  be  identical  with  the  sophoria  of  Prof. 
H.  C.  Wood  (see  "Am.  Jour.  Phar.,''  1877,  p.  617;  1878,  p.  39);  the  herb  of 
Astragalus  niollissimus,  Torr.  {Ibid.^  1879,  p.  238),  which  seems  to  contain 
