EDITORIAL. 
291 
to be more fully matured by a Convention of the Colleges of Phar- 
macy. 
In looking over the above report we must confess that we do not 
think it sufficiently finished for the action of the Medical Association. 
For instance, it says, " Leaves, flowers, seeds, berries, fruits, herbs, 
roots, woods and barks, should be true, fresh and sound." Now let us ap- 
ply the recommendations. The frst we will admit, that drugs should be 
true. The second would create not a little difficulty among the inspect- 
ors. Fresh Jalap, or Calisaya Bark, or Ipecac, or Nux Vomica, or Quas- 
sia, may, or may not be as good as the same drugs that have been years 
in store, if well kept. In regard to the third, a difficulty would arise unless 
the degree of soundness shall be expressed, for it will be very difficult to 
find a case of rhubarb, a bale of senna, or a cask of uutmegs, that is abso- 
lutely sound; and a rigid inspector might have difficulty in passing such arti- 
cles, a portion of which are not sufficiently pure, whilst the largest part are. 
In such a case, should he be required to reject the unsound pieces, amount- 
ing to one tenth, or because nine-tenths are good, pass the whole ? An 
other example : — Digitalis leaves of the first year's growth, may be true, 
fresh and sound, and yet be very inferior in medicinal power. Belladonna, 
Henbane or Hemlock leaves, may have these characters, and yet from 
having been collected too early, be greatly deficient in their active princi- 
ples. Should not the criterion in these cases be of a chemical nature. 
For instance, long experience has given the manufacturing chemist such 
expertness, that with a few precipitate-yielding tests, he can soon arrive 
at the real value of a lot of bark or opium. Why cannot similar tests be 
applied to the narcotic leaves, for instance ? The precipitate yielded by 
tannic acids, cautiously added to their concentrated solutions, would 
probably be found to correspond with the proportion of their active prin- 
ciples. 
Again. The Report says, " Elaterium should be pure." How is a drug 
inspector to know that given specimens are pure ? We answer that his 
judgment should, where the least doubt exists, be founded on the proportion 
of elatin it will yield. The business of any authority, therefore, who aims 
at making a standard for Elaterium, should be to ascertain what is the 
least per centage of elatin that this drug should contain to be a reliable 
therapeutic agent ? and so of other drugs capable of the application of the 
same principle. The question for such authority to decide, is not that 
drugs should be true, fresh and sound ; all admit that ; but what they must 
be to pass the inspection, and to make the law practicable. Positive stand- 
ards should be given, wherever it is possible, as recommended for opium and 
scammony in the report, and for the narcotic leaves and elaterium in these 
remarks. The Inspector need not apply the test in all cases, but in those 
where the least doubt exists. 
Our correspondent, (Mr. Coggeshall,) suggests the propriety of all the 
