378 
EDITORIAL. 
"  The  New  York  law,  as  reported  in  this  paper,  requires  that  persons  who 
sell  poisons  shall  register  the  names  and  residences  of  parties  purchasing,  un- 
less in  cases  of  a  physician's  prescription.  The  labelling  must  be  attended  to 
properly.  The  poisons  here  referred  to,  are  arsenic  and  its  preparations,  oxalic 
acid,  corrosive  sublimate,  chloroform,  sugar  of  lead,  tartar  emetic,  opium  and 
its  preparations,  oil  of  bitter  almonds,  the  cyanides,  deadly  nightshade,  and 
poison  hemlock." 
"The  sale  of  the  following  poisons  by  retail  is  prohibited,  except  by  the 
written  order  of  a  regularly  authorized  practising  physician,  whose  name  and 
residence  shall  be  attached  to  such  order :  prussic  acid,  aconite  and  its  pre- 
parations, atropia  and  its  salts,  cantharides,  croton  oil,  daturia  and  its  salts, 
delphinia  and  its  salts,  digitalis  and  its  preparations,  nux  vomica  and  its  pre- 
parations, elaterium,  ergot  and  its  preparations,  veratria  and  its  salts,  and 
cannabis  indica  and  its  preparations.  A  fine  of  100  dollars  may  be  recovered 
for  a  violation  of  these  restrictions." 
This  law,  if  literally  carried  out,  will  occasion  much  trouble  to  the  apothe- 
caries, and  in  practice  it  will  be  found  nearly  impossible,  from  the  fact  that 
various  of  the  articles  named  are  already  in  common  legitimate  family 
use,  aud  for  every  demand  the  law  requires  a  physician's  prescription. 
Dr.  Coates'  Address. — In  our  last  number  reference  was  made  to  the 
Address  of  Dr,  Benjamin  Hornor  Coates  before  the  County  Medical  Society, 
and  we  propose  to  offer  a  few  comments  upon  some  of  its  remarks  bearing 
on  the  apothecaries  of  Philadelphia.    As  page  22  occur  the  following  lines: 
"  If  Jeshurun  be  representative  of  our  apothecaries  he  has  certainly,  in  some  in- 
stances, waxed  fat  and  kicked.  Occupying,  first,  the  wholesale  drug  business,  he 
has  also  largely  partaken  of  the  sale  of  toilet  and  fancy  articles.  In  other  cases, 
it  may  be,  he  tends  a  little  to  emaciation.  The  result  is.  as  far  as  stands  con- 
spicuous to  the  public  eye,  the  appearance  of  multitudinous  establishments 
throughout  the  city,  an  army  of  young  men,  a  college,  with  its  officers  and  ap- 
purtenances, the  accumulation  of  large  fortunes,  and  an  active  share  in  the  ad- 
ministration of  diversified  public  institutions  :  whilst  Jeshurun  retains  the  title 
of  an  apothecary,  and  more  or  less  prepares  and  supplies  drugs.  Is  the  scienti- 
fic and  life  and  death  parts  of  an  apothecary's  labors  a  thing  so  slight  and 
limited  as  to  require  the  occupation  of  so  small  a  portion  of  human  existence, 
and  to  leave  leisure  for  all  these  glories  ?  Or  has  their  profession  embraced 
all  the  genius  of  the  city?" 
It  would  not,  perhaps,  be  difficult  to  analyze  the  motives  which  suggested 
this  extraordinary  paragraph,  yet  as  it  does  no  harm,  unless  to  the  author, 
we  pass  it  by  without  further  notice  than  to  say,  that  we  see  no  reason  why 
an  apothecary  should  not,  like  any  other  citizen,  give  a  portion  of  his  time 
to  public  interests  of  a  benevolent  or  educational  character,  when  his  busi- 
ness arangements  admit  of  his  doing  so. 
At  page  23  Dr.  Coates  says,  "  A  few  years  since  a  conference  was  held 
between  Committees  of  the  College  of  Physicians  and  that  of  Pharmacy  ; 
the  results  of  which  were  published  in  the  form  of  recommendations,"  It 
is  true  that  some  years  since  a  conference  of  committees  of  the  bodies  men- 
tioned, did  take  place  at  the  request  of  the  former,  chiefly  in  regard  to  an 
alleged  infraction  of  the  rights  of  physicians  by  apothecaries  prescribing 
at  the  counter,  but  so  far  as  we  remember,  no  such  result  as  that  stated  by 
