EDITORIAL. 
573 
organ  of  my  colleagues,  the  Druggists  and  Pharmaceutists  of  New  York, 
to  bid  you  welcome,  and  to  assure  you  of  our  desire  to  make  this  an  hour 
of  pleasure  and  of  profit  to  you.  Accept,  then,  gentlemen,  our  thanks 
for  the  honor  of  your  presence. 
I  will  not  refer  to  the  growth  of  our  Association,  and  its  increasing 
usefulness  ;  these  are  better  attested  by  the  presence  of  its  members,  and 
by  the  value  of  their  contributions,  than  by  any  language  of  mine ;  and  I 
have  the  less  regret  for  this  deficiency  on  my  part,  as  I  feel  assured  that 
ample  recompense  will  be  made  by  an  associate,  who  will  respond  to  the 
first  sentiment  of  the  evening. 
The  President  then  read  as  the  first  toast : — 
The  American  Pharmaceutical  Association — its  migrations  and  gathering 
forces — from  the  sturdy  North  to  the  genial  South — from  the  historical 
East  to  the  young  and  glorious  West — from  Mount  Yernon  to  Bunker 
Hill,  and  thence  back  to  the  point  of  beginning.  May  the  vigor  of  its 
past  course  be  the  earnest  of  its  future. 
The  toast  was  responded  to  by  Dr.  Guthrie,  who  gave  a  succinct  history 
of  the  origin  of  the  Association,  a  theme  grateful  to  him  as  one  of  the 
chief  actors  at  its  inception. 
Our  Journal. — The  present  number,  which  completes  the  thirty-second 
volume  of  this  Journal,  (which  has  been  issued  without  intermission  during 
as  many  years,)  has  been  delayed  beyond  the  usual  time  of  issue,  by  the 
Index  and  the  additional  duties  of  the  Editor,  in  connection  with  the 
Proceedings  of  the  Association,  which,  it  is  hoped,  will  be  accepted  as  a 
sufficient  apology  for  our  lack  of  punctuality.  In  the  next  volume  we  pro- 
pose to  publish,  in  parts,  a  translation  of  the  work  of  Dr.  Pochleder,  on 
the  proximate  analysis  of  organic  substances,  with  notes  by  Mr.  John  M. 
Maisch,  and  which  will  prove  a  useful  work  of  reference  and  study  to  our 
young  pharmaceutical  chemists,  who  wish  to  prosecute  organic  research 
in  a  regularly  scientific  manner. 
Is  Citric  Acid  a  Poison? — Some  of  our  readers  have  taken  exception 
to  the  paper  of  Dr.  J.  Lawrence  Smith,  published  in  our  last  number,  on 
Tartro-Citric  Lemonade,  from  the  employment  of  what  is  believed  to  be 
a  species  of  sophistry,  which  tends  to  discredit  a  well-tried  and  valuable 
preparation.  As  we  have  been  reflected  upon  for  not  pointing  out  this 
false  argument  at  the  time  of  publishing  the  paper,  (which  we  really  had 
intended  to  do  in  a  foot  note,  but  forgot  it  at  the  right  moment,)  we  do 
so  now.  The  sophistry  consists  in  throwing  the  onus,  which  appertains 
only  to  a  concentrated  solution  of  citric  acid  as  a  corrosive  gastric  ir- 
ritant, on  solution  of  citrate  of  magnesia,  because  sometimes  this  solu- 
tion has  quite  an  excess  of  acid  present,  and  thus  causing  the  unwary 
reader  to  infer,  because  Bence  Jones  found  citric  acid  per  se,  poisonous 
to  rabbits,  etc.,  ergo  citric  acid  is  poisonous  to  man — consequently 
citrate  of  magnesia  must  be  objectionable ; — and  this,  in  despite  the 
facts  that  the  medical  journals  have  been  recommending  rheumatic 
patients  to  be  drenched  with  lemon-juice  by  the  half  pint,  and  that 
lemonade  is  universally  considered  a  healthful  beverage, 
