Editorial. — Revieics,  etc. 
Am  Jour.  Pharm. 
Feb.,  188->. 
would  seem  to  be  a  eoninieiidable  act  to  let  tlieni  have  the  information  free 
of  expense. 
Forest  Convention.— We  have  on  various  occasions  referred  to  the 
necessity  of  forest  culture ;  that  druggists  and  i)harmacists  are,  in  a  large 
measure,  interested  in  this  question,  was  well  shown  in  the  interesting 
-and  instructive  address  of  Mr.  G.  W.  Sloan,  delivered  by  him  as  president 
of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association  at  the  meeting  held  at  Sara- 
toga in  1880,  and  in  which  he  proved  the  gradual  disappearance  of  many 
medicinal  plants  from  localities  where  they  had  formerly  been  plentiful, 
but  had  now  ceased  to  grow  in  consequence  of  the  destruction  of  forests. 
His  suggestion  that  the  State  Pharmaceutical  Associations  confer  with 
State  Boards  of  Agriculture  with  the  view  of  the  more  systematic  cultiva- 
tion of  medicinal  and  other  useful  plants,  has,  we  believe,  not  secured  that 
notice  and  attention  which  it  seems  to  deserve. 
The  country  at  large  is  doubtless  to  a  still  greater  extent  interested  in 
the  constantly  increasing  demand  for  timber  of  nearly  every  description, 
but  more  especially  for  those  kinds  which  are  largely  used  in  building  and 
for  general  manufacturing  purposes.  This  demand  has  been  followed  by 
■scarcity  of  timber  in  many  localities  and  by  a  large  appreciation  in  value 
of  lumber,  so  that  the  necessity  becomes  yearly  more  obvious  of  making 
provision  for  the  future  supply  of  material  in  which  all  industries  are  inter- 
ested, either  directly  or  indirectly.  The  call  for  a  forest  convention  does 
therefore  appear  to  come  not  any  too  soon.  The  convention  is  to  assemble 
in  Cincinnati  on  April  17th  next,  and  we  understand  that  extensive 
arrangements  are  being  made  to  insure  the  success  of  the  great  object  in 
view — the  rational  cultivation  of  forests.  It  will  require  much  patient 
labor  to  educate  the  popular  mind  in  looking  upon  forests  from  other 
points  of  view  than  that  merely  relating  to  the  income  to  be  derived  from  the 
-cutting  of  timber ;  but  it  is  a  labor  in  which  all  should  feel  interested,  and 
druggists  and  pharmacists  to  at  least  as  great  an  extent  as  the  general 
public.  The  city  inaugurating  this  movement  is  deserving  of  high  praise 
for  the  commendable  spirit  shown  in  the  endeavor  of  enlisting  the  active 
co-operation  of  all  sections  of  the  country,  with  the  view  of  securing  the 
adoption  of  measures  that  are  of  national  importance. 
REVIEWS  AND  BIBLIOGEAPHICAL  NOTICES. 
Report  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Fifth  International  Pharmaceutical 
Congress,  Lo7ido)i,  1881.  London  :  Pharmaceutical  Society  of  Great 
Britain,  1881.    4to,  pp.  299. 
This  handsome  volume  gives  in  the  Preface  a  brief  history  of  the  origin 
of  the  fifth  international  pharmaceutical  Congress,  of  whose  proceedings  a 
full  account  has  been  published  in  our  October  number,  1881,  pp.  513 — 528. 
This  official  report  contains  the  discussions  in  full,  each  speech  being  given 
in  the  language  used  by  the  speaker,  and  where  this  was  not  English  an 
English  translation  is  supplied;  and  all  communications  placed  before 
