EDITORIAL. 
283 
turing  and  agricultural  classes  to  the  isolated  dweller  of  the  distant  prairies 
of  the  West.  This  inclination  to  resort  to  secret  medicines,  is  stimu- 
lated through  every  available  medium,  by  those  pecuniarily  interested,  in 
such  bold  and  undoubting  language,  and  in  every  form  of  testimony  their 
ingenuity  can  invent,  that  the  alleged  efficacy  of  the  medicines  seems  more 
probable  than  that  such  positive  testimonials  should  be  based  on  a  tissue  of 
falsehood  and  deceit.  Quacks  know  the  influence  which  the  names  of  drug- 
gists and  pharmaceutists  lend  in  their  favor,  and  hence  they  seek  them  for 
agents,  and  extensively  circulate  their  lists  of  agencies.  Under  these  cir- 
cumstances, is  it  to  be  wondered  at  that  quackery  is  intimately  interwoven 
with  the  pharmacy  of  the  United  States  ?  Is  it  surprising  that  the  tempta- 
tion to  gain  should  not  only  induce  us  to  supply  the  demand  thus  un- 
righteously created,  by  acting  as  agents  for  the  quack,  but  in  too  numerous 
instances,  influenced  by  their  rapid  accumulation  of  wealth,  to  plunge  par- 
tially or  wholly  into  the  defiling  current,  and  assume  the  livery  of  unblush- 
ing empyricism  ?  It  is  against  this  seductive  influence  that  we  are  to  be  in- 
duced to  exert  ourselves  ;  it  is  with  this  double-headed  monster,  enrobed  in 
such  deceitful  and  enticing  garments  as  to  disarm  our  sense  of  insecurity, 
that  we  are  to  do  battle,  if  we  hope  to  elevate  our  profession  to  the  position 
it  should  occupy  in  the  scale  of  useful  scientific  arts.  Alone,  we  can 
do  but  little.  It  is  an  old  saying,  "  in  union  there  is  strength."  But  the 
combination  of  integral  weakness  and  impotency  never  produced  power  ; 
the  hemp-fibre  must  have  its  native  toughness  unimpaired  to  produce  the 
strong  cable.  The  individuals  of  a  nation  must  possess  virtue  to  afford  a 
strong  government.  So,  in  pharmaceutical  reform,  there  must  be,  individu- 
ally, a  sincere  desire  to  be  free  from  existing  abuses,  accompanied  by  a 
determination  equal  to  the  attendant  sacrifice,  before  any  effort  against  the 
evils  that  beset  our  profession, — only  one  of  which  has  been  depicted, — can 
be  ameliorated  or  removed. 
We  believe  there  exists  among  the  apothecaries  and  druggists  of  this 
country  many  men  equal  to  the  occasion.  Let  us  hope  that  they  will  meet 
in  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association,  and,  gathering  strength  by 
union,  effect  something  toward  the  desired  reformation. 
Drug  Thieves. — We  give  place  to  the  following  communication,  to  put  our 
city  brethren  on  their  guard  against  accidentally  and  unintentionally  counte- 
nancing a  form  of  villainy,  that  is  not  new  to  our  city.  Several  years  ago, 
a  drug  house  suffered  severely  in  the  same  manner,  and  it  is  certainly 
the  duty  of  every  apothecary  to  avoid  purchasing  drugs  under  circum- 
stances leading  to  suspicion  of  the  honesty  of  the  party  offering  them,  and  to 
assist  in  detecting  the  guilty. 
To  the  Editor  of  The  American  Journal  of  Pharmacy. 
Considerable  losses  have  been  sustained  from  time  to  time  by  the  trade, 
through  the  dishonesty  of  persons  employed  in  various  establishments.  The 
police  reports,  a  few  days  since,  chronicle  a  series  of  thefts  from  a  wholesale 
Dtuggist  of  this  city,  which,  it  appears,  has  been  carried  on  for  a  long  time  ; 
the  value  of  the  property  taken  is  ascertained  to  be  about  two  thousand  dol- 
