Am7u°iy?i904arra'}     The  American  Medical  Association.  345 
and  proprietary  medicines.  All  of  the  communications,  with  the 
possible  exception  of  the  one  on  the  coming  edition  of  the  United 
States  Pharmacopoeia,  by  Prof.  Joseph  P.  Remington,  were  largely 
devoted  to  this  particular  problem. 
The  chairman,  Dr.  Osborne,  in  his  address  pointed  out  some  of  the 
possible  dangers,  to  public  health  and  morals,  of  the  rapidly  increas- 
ing nostrums  and  irregular  practitioners. 
The  chairman's  address  was  followed  by  the  reading  of  the  report 
of  the  committee  on  proprietary  medicines.  This  report,  in  the  ab- 
sence of  the  chairman  of  the  committee,  Dr.  Harry  H.  Moody,  was 
read  by  the  secretary,  Dr.  C.  S.  N.  Hallberg,  and  was  a  conserva- 
tive and  a  highly  important  communication.  The  committee  point 
©ut  that  the  indiscriminate  condemnation  of  all  proprietary  prepara- 
tions is  not  alone  unjust  but  also  tends  to  defeat  or,  at  least,  delay 
any  necessary  improvement  or  reform.  They  recommend  that  the 
American  Medical  Association  have  in  view  the  gradual  elimination 
of  objectionable  advertisements  of  medicinal  preparations  from  the 
advertising  pages  of  medical  journals,  particularly  the  Journal  of 
the  American  Medical  Association.  With  this  object  in  view,  the 
committee  enumerate  some  of  the  most  objectionable  features  of 
these  preparations,  and  suggest  changes  that  would  be  necessary  to 
bring  others  within  the  limits  of  strictly  legitimate  preparations. 
The  plan  as  outlined  would  appear  to  be  reasonable,  and  if  care- 
fully put  into  operation  would  be  of  incalculable  benefit  to  the  prac- 
tice of  medicine  as  well  as  pharmacy. 
"  Federal  Supervision  of  Drugs  "  was  the  title  of  a  very  interesting 
communication  by  Dr.  Harvey  W.  Wiley,  the  Chief  Chemist  of  the 
Bureau  of  Chemistry,  Department  of  Agriculture,  in  which  he  de- 
scribed the  work  that  is  being  done  at  the  present  time  by  the 
Department  of  Agriculture  as  well  as  by  the  inspectors  of  the 
Department  of  the  Treasury  to  prevent  the  importation  and  sale  of 
adulterated  drugs  and  food  products.  He  also  referred  to  the  efforts 
that  are  being  made  by  the  Postmaster  General  to  prevent  the 
transmission  in  the  mails  of  fraudulent  and  obnoxious  preparations 
or  advertisements.  Dr.  Wiley  thinks  that  if  the  Postmaster  Gen- 
eral receives  the  hearty  support  of  the  members  of  the  medical  pro- 
fession in  his  campaign  against  concerns  doing  a  fraudulent  business 
the  latter  would  soon  be  exterminated,  as  they  cannot  flourish  or 
