EDITORIAL. 
475 
general  aspect  belongs  to  the  grey  variety  ;  a  considerable  number  of  the 
roots  have  more  or  less  of  the  woody  stems  attached,  and  many  of  these 
stems  are  loosely  admixed  with  the  proper  drug.  The  roots  vary  in  thick- 
ness from  one  to  two  and  a  half  lines,  are  more  or  less  contorted,  are  less 
annulated  and  marked  with  fewer  transverse  fissures  than  the  Brazilian, 
while  the  relation  of  the  cortical  to  the  ligneous  portion  is  about  the  same. 
The  color  of  the  epidermis  is  a  uniform  dull  gray  ;  the  fracture  is  smooth 
and  has  a  resinous  lustre  and  greyish-brown  color ;  its  odor  is  that  of  the 
ordinary  variety,  as  also  is  its  taste.  From  the  greater  percentage  of  ligne- 
ous stems  it  must  be  considered  inferior  in  value  to  the  best  Brazilian  root, 
but  when  properly  garbled,  we  have  no  doubt  that  it  will  prove  quite  equal 
in  efficacy.  As  regards  its  origin,  it  probably  is  brought  from  the  interior. 
Dr.  Wood  says  (U.  S.  Disp.  page  414,  1851,)  "We  have"seen  in  this  market 
bales  of  gray  ipecacuanha  with  very  imperfectly  developed  rings,  which 
was  said  to  come  from  Caraccas.  At  present,  however,  this  is  very  rare,  if 
to  be  found  at  all." 
According  to  Humboldt,  ipecacuanha  grows  in  New  Grenada,  and  it  is 
altogether  probable  that  the  variety  in  question  is  derived  by  a  trans-mon- 
tane commerce  from  the  northern  slope  of  the  Valley  of  the  Amazon,  in  the 
southern  portion  of  New  Grenada  and  northern  Brazil  drained  by  the  Rio 
Negro. 
New  York  Medical  Gazette  vs.  Apothecaries. — We  extract  the  follow- 
ing from  the  July  number  of  the  New  York  Medical  Gazette  : 
11  Mistakes  of  Apothecaries. — The  fatal  blunders  by  apothecaries  or 
their  clerks  are  becoming  so  numerous,  that  a  due  regard  to  the  safety  of 
human  life  imperatively  demands  the  enactment  of  some  stringent  measures 
by  law,  for  the  protection  of  the  public.  The  College  of  Pharmacy  appears 
to  be  powerless,  as  it  certainly  is  useless,  as  a  remedy  of  the  evil.  Unless 
something  is  speedily  done,  it  will  be  the  duty  of  physicians  to  return  to 
their  former  practice,  now  nearly  obsolete,  of  supplying  their  patients  with 
medicines,  instead  of  allowing  them  to  depend  upon  the  casual  apothecaries 
in  the  neighborhood,  in  many  of  which  neither  master  nor  man  have  any 
qualification  for  their  business,  and  are  as  liable  to  give  morphine  instead  of 
quinine,  or  as  in  a  recent  fatal  instance,  laudanum  for  paregoric!  a  mistake 
which  admits  of  no  palliation,  and  should  subject  the  offender  to  exile  from 
the  trade  forever. 
There  are  a  few  educated,  discreet,  and  careful  apothecaries  in  the  city, 
who  neither  themselves,  nor  by  their  clerks,  presume  to  act  the  doctor,  by 
changing  or  criticising  the  prescriptions  sent  to  them,  or  expressing  their 
sage  opinions  of  the  dose.  Such  and  such  only  should  be  patronized  by  the 
profession  or  the  public.  We  know  of  many  shops,  the  impertinence  of 
whose  proprietors  in  this  regard,  will  account  for  their  being  shunned  by 
medical  men,  and  avoided  by  their  patients,  the  only  redress  which  is  avail- 
able. It  is  full  time  that  physicians  and  apothecaries  should  understand 
their  relations  to  each  other  better,  or  change  them  for  the  safety  of  their 
patients." 
We  have  read  the  above  article  with  regret — not  but  that  it  may  contain 
much  truth,  and  that  many  of  those  who  practice  pharmacy  in  our  sister 
city  may  be  unqualified  for  their  duty — a  fact  which  applies  unfortunately 
