Am.  Jour.  Pharm."! 
January,  1897.  J 
Editorial. 
5i 
EDITORIAL. 
The  sixty-eighth  volume  of  the  American  Journae  of  Pharmacy,  which 
closed  with  the  December  number,  contained  708  pages  of  reading  matter  and 
index,  and  was  the  largest  volume  of  this  journal  ever  issued.  It  is  but  justice 
to  our  contributors  to  say  that  we  believe  the  quality  of  the  reading  matter  has 
never  been  excelled  in  previous  volumes.  Many  of  the  papers  called  for  illus- 
trations, and  the  call  was  liberally  answered  by  the  publishing  committee,  so 
that  every  number  contained  one  or  more  illustrated  papers. 
The  present  issue  opens  the  sixty-ninth  volume  with  an  array  of  original 
matter,  which  we  have  no  hesitation  in  designating  as  highly  meritorious. 
Mr.  Maiden's  paper  on  red  gum  is  one  of  the  first  published  in  this  country 
on  that  subject.  Mr.  Rittenhouse's  contribution  on  the  present  sources  of  lico- 
rice root  contains  information  derived  from  first  hands  ;  and  Mr.  LaWall's 
article  calling  attention  to  a  new  and  easily  detected  sophistication  of  Japan 
wax  is  of  the  greatest  importance.  It  is  no  detraction  from  the  other  papers 
that  they  are  not  mentioned  here,  yet  we  cannot  refrain  from  especially  calling 
attention  to  the  address  by  Mr.  Kilmer  on  modern  surgical  dressings,  in  which 
the  pharmacist  will  find  information  about  the  dispensing  of  these  commodi- 
ties which  should  cause  him  to  redouble  his  vigilance  in  the  direction  of  clean- 
liness, and  encourage  him  to  insist  on  the  physician  ordering  such  quantities 
as  to  enable  the  dressings  to  be  dispensed  without  danger  of  their  becoming 
infected. 
THE  PATENT  MEDICINE  ALMANAC. 
This  is  the  season  of  the  year  when  the  pharmacist  is  liberally  supplied  with 
almanacs,  bearing  his  own  business  card,  for  distribution  to  his  customers. 
Many  fall  into  the  trap,  and  pass  these  wretched  advertisements  on  to  their 
customers,  and  thereby  commit  a  grievous  error  which  injures  them  in  a  num- 
ber of  ways. 
If  every  pharmacist  who  reads  this  Journae  would  either  return  the  alma- 
nacs to  the  sender  or  consign  them  to  the  fire,  it  would,  in  some  sections  of  the 
country  at  least,  break  up  this  system  of  making  him  the  advertising  agent  of 
the  nostrum  manufacturers. 
EXIT  EUCIUM. 
Some  three  months  ago,  a  new  element  was  announced  in  monazite  sand. 
It  was  soon  found,  however,  that  the  enterprising  discoverer  had  patented  it, 
and  proposed  to  use  it  in  incandescent  gas  lighting. 
Dr.  "William  Crookes,  editor  of  the  Chemical  News,  has  been  supplied  with 
the  nitrate  and  oxalate  of  the  alleged  element  by  the  patentee,  Mr.  P.  Barriere, 
and  finds,  by  spectroscopic  and  chemical  examinations,  "that  lucium  is  nothirg 
but  impure  yttrium." 
In  the  same  issue  of  the  Chemical  News,  Dr.  R.  Fresenius  calls  attention  to 
the  fact  that  his  name  had  been  used  in  connection  with  the  so-called  element 
without  authority. 
