STATE  OF  PHARMACY  IN  GERMANY  AND  PRUSSIA.  323 
live  article  of  diet.'  While  I  find  the  use  of  infusion  of  the  berry 
for  a  few  days  invariably  to  produce  on  me,  as  on  many  others,  the 
effects  of  nervousness  and  bilious  obstruction,  I  drink  a  strong  in- 
fusion of  the  leaf  daily  with  evident  benefit  to  my  health  and 
strength.  As  a  restorative  on  exhaustion  from  the  severities  of 
labor  or  of  the  weather,  from  heat  to  cold,  or  long  exposure  to 
rain,  I  know  nothing  superior  to  it.  It  has  also  the  advantage  of 
being  a  powerful  disinfectant,  so  far  as  neutralizing  foetidity  goes, 
and  a  solvent  of  the  viscid  fluids  which  obstruct  the  circulation, 
often  to  the  extent  of  becoming  laxative  if  taken  in  extra  quantity. 
Of  its  nutritive  power,  no  proof  can  be  stronger  than  that  it  sus- 
pends hunger  and  enables  the  laboring  man  to  pursue  his  work  for 
hours  after  he  would  be  otherwise  unable.  That  it  would  soon 
become  a  most  valuable  article  of  diet  among  the  laboring  classes, 
and  on  ship-board  particularly,  if  once  brought  into  use,  there  can 
be  no  doubt.  The  coffee-tree  can  be  grown  to  advantage  for  the 
leaf  in  the  lowlands  of  every  tropical  country  where  the  soil  is  suf- 
ficiently fertile,  whilst  it  requires  soil  and  climate  to  produce  the 
fruit. 
"  Nothing  appears  in  the  Free  Press  on  the  mode  of  its  prepa- 
ration by  Dr.  Gardner,  but  I  should  think  if  roasted  and  pulverized 
and  packed  in  air-tight  cases  like  tea,  it  would  retain  its  strength 
and  bear  transporting  to  every  part  of  the  world  ;  and  as  it  soon 
fixes  itself  more  strongly  than  either  tea  or  coffee  in  the  taste,  it 
would  soon  become  a  more  absolute  necessary  of  life  than  either  of 
those  articles.  In  fact,  I  am  acquainted  with  no  tropical  produc- 
tion capable  of  being  rendered  so  great  a  blessing  to  mankind  as 
the  coffee  leaf ;  and  as  it  would  tend  materially  to  the  desuetude  of 
ardent  spirits  and  strong  drinks,  its  introduction  ought  to  have  the 
support  of  every  friend  to  the  moral  and  material  welfare  of  society." 
Padang,  12th  Nov.,  1852.  Pharm.  Journ.,  March,  1853. 
ON  THE  STATE  OF  PHARMACY  IN  GERMANY  AND  PRUSSIA. 
By  M.  Bussy.  t 
Among  the  modifications  of  the  law  relating  to  pharmacy,  which 
have  been  sought  for  in  a  petition  addressed  to  the  French  govern- 
ment by  a  great  number  of  pharmaceutists,  there  is  one  of  especial 
importance,  to  which  all  the  others  are  in  some  sort  subordinate.. 
