300 
INSPECTION  OF  DRUGS. 
some  of  the  requisites  of  a  good  officer,  you  will  give  us  credit  for 
an  honest  desire  to  aid  in  the  successful  execution  of  the  Enact- 
ment. 
As  a  large  proportion  of  the  drugs  imported  into  the  United 
States  are  of  a  description  requiring  an  intimate  acquaintance  with 
their  physical  and  sensible  properties,  rather  than  their  chemical 
constitution,  in  properly  subjecting  them  to  inspection,  it  is  indis- 
pensible  that  the  Examiner  should  have  had  a  practical  pharma- 
ceutical education,  especially  as  many  mixed  medical  compounds 
are  in  the  list  of  imported  articles,  the  merits  of  which  cannot  be 
judged  by  the  abstract  chemist.  He  should  also  be  a  practical 
chemist,  so  as  to  perform  the  chemical  analyses  and  testing  required 
in  the  execution  of  his  duties  himself,  and  not  be  necessarily  de- 
pendent on  others  for  knowledge  and  skill  which  he  is  employed  to 
exercise,  and  which  should  be  exercised  in  view  of  all  the  circum- 
stances pertaining  to  the  drugs  examined.  These,  with  the  busi- 
ness habits  requisite  to  insure  the  government  from  impesition  in 
regard  to  the  value  and  construction  of  invoices,  and  the  integrity 
without  which  all  other  qualifications  are  ineffectual,  should  be 
found  in  the  Special  Examiner  of  Drugs. 
In  view  of  these  circumstances,  we  would  earnestly  recommend, 
other  requisites  being  equal,  that  well  educated  pharmaceutists,  or, 
at  least,  individuals  who  have  had  a  practical  pharmaceutical  edu- 
cation, should  claim  the  preference  among  the  candidates  for  the 
Examinership  ;  trusting  that  your  sense  of  the  truth  of  the  positions 
we  have  taken  will  induce  vou  to  act  in  accordance  with  them. 
Dillwyn  Parrish,  Secretary. 
At  a  Special  Meeting  of  the  Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacv, 
held  May  30th,  1853,  with  Charles  Ellis,  1st  Vice  President,  in 
the  Chair,  it  was  directed  that  the  above  memorial  to  the  Secre- 
tary of  the  Treasury  of  the  United  States  be  engrossed,  duly  signed 
by  the  officers,  and  the  seal  of  the  College  affixed,  and  that  two 
members  of  the  College  be  deputed  to  present  it  to  the  Hon.  Sec- 
retary at  Washington,  with  such  verbal  explanations  as  may  be 
