■588 
Editorial. 
f  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
\      Nov.,  1882. 
Secretary's  desk  by  T.  H.  Patterson.  Addresses  of  welcome  were  made  by 
City  Engineer  Cregier,  on  behalf  the  Mayor,  and  by  Lieutenant-Governor 
Hamilton.  The  annual  address  of  the  i)resident,  and  the  reports  of  the 
other  officers,  of  the  various  committees  and  of  the  State  Board  of  Phar- 
macy were  read  and  appropriately  disposed  of.  The  draft  of  a  law  for  the 
regulation  of  the  sale  of  alcoholic  liquors  for  medicinal  purposes  was  sub- 
mitted and  referred  to  the  Committee  on  Legislation. 
Palmers  were  read  by  Prof.  Hayes  on  the  "  Therapeutic  value  of  Electric- 
ity by  A.  G.  Vogeler  on  "  Citrine  Ointment;"  also,  oneentitled  "Whither 
are  we  Drifting?"  ;  by  C.  S.  Hallberg  on  "  Ergot,"  and  several  papers  by 
H.  Biroth. 
The  following  officers  were  elected  to  serve  for  one  year:  President, 
Henry  Biroth,  Chicago.  Vice-Presidents,  1.  H.  Le  Caron,  Braidwood ;  E. 
Smallhausen,  Lawrenceville ;  J.  B.  Boyd,  Quincy.  Permanent  Secretary, 
T.  H.  Patterson,  Chicago.  Treasurer,  W.  P.  Boyd,  Areola.  Executive 
Committee — Thomas  Whitfield,  Chicago;  L.  Van  Patten,  St.  Charles; 
Victor  H.  Dumbeck,  Peoria. 
After  the  transaction  of  routine  business  and  electing  Mr.  H.  Fleury 
Local  Secretary,  the  Association  adjourned  to  meet  next  year  in  Spring- 
field, on  the  second  Tuesday  of  October. 
The  meeting  was  well  attended,  various  places  of  interest  were  visited, 
and  a  banquet  at  the  Grand  Pacific  Hotel  was  provided  for  a  large  number 
of  guests. 
EDITOEIAL  DEPARTMENT. 
Charges  against  Pharmacists. —  In  our  September  number,  page 
474,  we  alluded  to  sensational  attacks  made  by  a  newspaper  of  this  city 
upon  the  integrity  and  trustworthiness  of  the  iDharmacists  of  Philadelphia, 
and  stated  that  the  Trade  Association  of  Philadelphia  Druggists  had 
requested  to  be  furnished  with  proofs  of  the  charges  made.  This  proof  has 
at  last  been  forthcoming  and  was  submitted  to  a  meeting  held  October  9th. 
From  the  report  of  the  committee  and  the  appended  documents,  it  appears 
that  Dr.  LefFmaii  had  been  engaged  to  analyze  sixty-five  medicines  pro- 
cured at  different  drug  stores,  the  large  majority  being  presumably  those 
upon  whom  the  suspicion  of  adulteration  and  substitution  rested.  In  one 
case  sulphate  of  cinchonidine  had  been  substituted  for  sulphate  of  quinine, 
and  in  another  case  a  mixture  of  borax  and  tannin  had  been  dispensed  as 
boracic  acid.  These  are  the  only  two  cases  of  actual  fraud  that  were 
clearly  proven  ;  for  the  disiDensing  of  sulphate  of  eserine  in  place  of  hydro- 
bromide  of  eserine  was  certainly  not  a  fraud,  though  the  manner  in  which 
the  error  or  inaccuracy  occurred  has  not  been  explained. 
In  addition  to  these  cases,  a  great  deal  of  capital  was  sought  to  be  made 
by  the  newspaper  from  the  analysis  of  several  samples  of  tincture  of  opium  , 
which  appear  to  have  been  purchased  as  laudanum,  and  not  to  have  been 
obtained  ui)on  prescriptions.  The  laudanum  procured  from  a  reliable 
wholesale  house  was  taken  as  the  standard  of  comparison  ;  it  yielded  4-6 
^grains  of  morphine  to  the  ounce.   The  Pharmacopoeia  of  1870  requires  dried 
