Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  1 
December,  1904.  J 
Progress  in  Pharmacy. 
58i 
several  times  daily  in  this  routine  prescription  for  a  tonic  and  anti- 
periodic. 
I  do  not  remember  that  any  untoward  symptoms  developed, 
though  they  were  not  unexpected,  as  the  books  then  taught  that 
copper  salts  were  irritants.  So  they  are,  but  only  in  doses  much 
larger  than  y&  of  a  grain.  We  saw  no  cumulative  effects.  Lehmann1 
and  his  pupils  found  that  a  man  could  take  I  to  2  grains  of  copper 
as  sulphate  and  acetate  daily  in  peas  and  beans  divided  into  two 
meals  without  effect. 
The  highest  sanitary  authorities 2  appointed  to  investigate  this 
matter  have  reported  that  "  copper  in  the  amounts  found  in  canned 
goods  is  not  capable  of  injury  to  health." 
Metallic  copper  is  not  a  poison.  Surgeons  have  used  copper  wire 
for  suturing  wounds  without  noticing  local  irritation ;  children 
swallow  copper  pennies  daily  without  injury  to  the  digestive  tract. 
As  copper  is  present  in  almost  all  our  food,  it  is  not  surprising  to 
learn  that  each  of  us  takes  daily  about  I  milligram  of  copper,3  and 
that  it  is  found  regularly  in  our  tissues.  I  see  no  reason  to  fear 
copper  if  the  amounts  never  exceed  the  small  proportion  stated  by 
Dr.  Moore  as  entirely  adequate  for  the  purification  of  water  supplies. 
J.  W.  Holland. 
Philadelphia,  November  15,  1904. 
PROGRESS  IN  PHARMACY. 
A  QUARTERLY  REVIEW  OF  SOME  OF  THE  RECENT  LITERATURE  RELATING 
TO  PHARMACY  AND  MATERIA  MEDICA. 
BY  M.  I.  WlLBBRT, 
Apothecary  at  the  German  Hospital,  Philadelphia. 
The  closing  year  has  been  one  of  exceptional  importance  to 
the  progress  of  pharmacy,  along  professional  lines.  Among  the 
more  interesting  events  that  must  contribute  to  this  advance,  we 
may  enumerate  :  the  enactment  of  the  pre-requisite  law  by  the 
State  of  New  York ;  the  union  of  the  College  of  Pharmacy  of  the 
City  of  New  York  with  Columbia  University ;  the  union  of  the 
1  Munch.  Med.  Wochenschr.,  1891. 
3  Pasteur,  Poggiale  and  Brouardel  in  Annals  d'Hyg.,  1880. 
3  Blyth:  "  Poisons — Effects  and  Detection." 
