EDITORIAL. 
571 
(SMtorial  ^Department. 
Meeting  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association. — At  the  ap- 
pointed time,  the  convention  of  this  now  large  body  met  at  the  University 
buildings,  in  New  York,  and  transacted  the  various  business  which  per- 
tains to  its  mission  in  the  cause  of  Pharmacy,  The  Minutes  of  the 
Meeting,  which  we  publish  in  the  beginning  of  this  number,  will  show 
what  that  business  was  in  detail.  Harmony  continued  throughout,  and 
not  the  slightest  ripple  of  ill  feeling  was  manifested  in  any  of  the  dis- 
cussions, a  result  not  always  to  be  claimed  by  such  meetings.  About 
eighty  new  members  joined  the  Association  at  this  meeting,  which  now 
swells  the  aggregate  number  to  five  hundred  and  thirty  five.  Besides 
the  reading  of  scientific  papers  and  reports,  the  subjects  of  the  sale  of 
poisons,  of  weights  and  measures,  and  of  the  adulteration  of  alcoholic 
liquors,  were  discussed  at  some  length.  The  discussion  on  weights  and 
measures  was  unfortunately  left  till  the  last  day,  when  very  many  of  the 
members  had  left  for  their  Jiomes-  As  it  was,  the  expression  was  en- 
tirely against  the  adoption  of  the  plan  proposed  for  the  British  Pharma- 
copoeia, which  is  to  abandon  Troy  weight  in  toto,  and  divide  the  avoir- 
dupois ounce  into  the  apothecary's  weight  divisions,  making  a  new  grain 
the  480th  part  of  437-5  grains.  The  adoption  of  the  resolution  of  Dr. 
Squibb,  to  use  the  term  parts  in  lieu  of  weights— meaning  parts  by 
weight — we  consider  as  highly  objectionable  for  the  Pharmacopoeia,  in- 
volving a  mental  process  on  every  occasion,  which,  in  the  hands  of  the 
unskilled,  will  be  constantly  liable  to  lead  to  error  and  confusion.  It 
suits  the  chemical  laboratory  very  well,  where  the  variations  in  quantities 
operated  on  is  constant  with  the  demand. 
In  its  literary  and  scientific  results,  we  believe  that  the  New  York 
meeting  falls  behind  those  of  Washington  and  Boston,  a  result 
partly  owing  to  there  being  few  important  special  committees;  but 
mainly  to  the  large  proportion  of  failures  to  answer  the  queries  accepted 
last  year.  As  this  labor  is  entirely  gratuitous,  it  is  liable  to  great 
irregularity  in  its  performance ;  and,  whilst  regretting  the  falling  off  in 
this  particular  at  this  meeting,  we  may  hope  for  a  more  abundant  harvest 
at  St.  Louis  next  year. 
Notwithstanding  the  deprecatory  resolution  of  last  year,  our  New  York 
friends  could  not  see  the  propriety  of  denying  themselves  the  indulgence  of 
a  gastronomic  display,  and  in  accordance  with  the  liberal  way  in  which  such 
things  are  done  in  "  the  metropolis,"  the  dinner  given  by  "  the  Druggists 
and  Pharmaceutists  of  New  York/'  to  the  members  of  the  American  Phar- 
maceutical Association,  is  said  to  have  been  the  most  extensive  and 
