Am,jJu°iy?ifo2arm'}      Products  of  the  Century  Plants,  323 
in  quality  and  uniformity,  in  the  strength  of  drugs  and  their  prepa- 
rations. 
Finally,  I  refer  you  to  the  notes  by  Dr.  Squibb  on  rhubarb  in 
the  Proceedings  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association  as 
being  admirable  essays,  in  that  they  show  the  responsibility  of  the 
pharmacist  in  buying  drugs  and  making  preparations  therefrom. 
They  contain  a  lesson  which  has  been  learned  well  by  a  few  success- 
ful pharmacists  and  manufacturers,  but  the  great  rank  and  file  have 
not  appreciated  the  fine  points,  and  the  result  has  been  that  physi- 
cians who  at  first  prescribed  a  few  of  the  special  products  of  manu- 
facturers because  they  knew  the  care  and  attention  which  was  being 
devoted  to  their  manufacture,  now  are  specifying  certain  manufac- 
turers' products  for  nearly  all  the  ingredients  which  they  need  in 
their  prescriptions.  This  will  be  done  until  pharmacists  generally 
learn  the  lesson  that  cheap  goods  are  generally  poor  in  quality,  and 
that  to  shift  the  responsibility  upon  some  one  else  is  not  to  their 
credit,  and  that,  furthermore,  brains  and  ability  must  be  coupled 
with  conscience  and  industry  in  the  making  of  every  medicament 
prescribed  by  the  physician  or  called  for  by  the  people. 
USEFUL  PRODUCTS  OF  THE  CENTURY  PLANTS.1 
A  LESSON  ON  MEXICO.2 
By  WmiAM  B.  Marshall, 
Former  Curator  of  the  Philadelphia  Commercial  Museums. 
In  recent  years  Mexico  has  become  a  progressive  country,  and, 
although  not  ranked  among  the  great  powers,  it  has  taken  an  hon- 
ored place  among  the  nations  of  the  world.  Its  people  come  into 
contact  with  the  rest  of  the  world  in  nearly  as  many  ways  as  do  the 
people  of  the  United  States,  but  in  lesser  degree.  The  foreign 
commerce  of  Mexico,  represented  by  the  value  of  its  imports  and 
exports,  already  large,  is  increasing  in  importance  each  year. 
The  principal  materials  imported  into  Mexico  are  machinery, 
cotton  textiles,  iron  and  steel,  wines  and  liquors,  wool  textiles,  paper, 
Reprinted  from  Journal  of  Geography,  pp.  6-17,  January,  1902. 
2  Continued  from  the  December  Bulletin  of  the  American  Bureau  of  Geog- 
raphy, Vol.  II,  No.  4,  p.  328.  The  electrotypes  used  in  connection  with  this 
article  were  furnished  through  the  courtesy  of  the  McCormick  Harvesting 
Machine  Company,  Chicago. 
