EDITORIAL. 
191 
Proceedings  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association. — -The  Ex- 
ecutive Committee  of  this  Association  have  sent  the  Proceedings  of  the 
meeting  of  1860  to  all  the  members  by  post  or  otherwise,  except  to  those 
in  California,  and  they  hope  soon  to  obtain  a  medium  of  forwarding  the 
package  destined  for  that  State.  If  persons  who  are  entitled  to  them  have 
not  received  their  copies,  they  should  notify  the  Chairman  of  that  Commit- 
tee (W.  Procter,  Jr.,  Philad.)  and  suggest  a  safe  medium  of  sending  the 
book.  It  is  much  to  be  desired  that  those  members  of  the  Association  who 
feel  a  lively  interest  in  its  success  and  advancement,  should  not  at  this 
juncture,  when  the  condition  of  public  affairs  absorbs  so  large  a  share  of 
the  attention  of  every  citizen,  lose  sight  of  the  importance  of  this  benevo- 
lent and  disinterested  scientific  movement  in  favor  of  the  improvement  of 
pharmacy  and  pharmaceutists— a  movement  so  catholic  in  its  character 
that  it  should  proceed  uninfluenced  by  the  political  aspects  of  the  country. 
Let  such  members  take  the  initiative,  by  encouraging  those  gentlemen  who 
agreed  to  contribute  special  reports  to  the  St.  Louis  meeting,  to  accomplish 
their  work,  so  that  those  who  may  go  to  that  distant  city  may  not  be  dis- 
appointed in  receiving  a  return  of  valuable  scientific  information.  We 
have  some  valued  members  in  the  south  and  south-west,  and  as  the  meet- 
ing at  St  Louis  is  at  the  most  southern  point  at  which  a  meeting  has  yet 
been  held,  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  attendance  of  southern  members  will 
be  larger  than  heretofore,  especially  as  the  means  of  travel  by  the  great 
water  routes  of  that  region  are  ample. 
Infamous  Quackery. — It  is  said  of  some  poisons,  that  when  taken  in  an 
overdose,  the  emesis  they  excite  proves  the  safety  of  the  subject.  So  of 
quackery.  In  some  of  its  forms  it  is  so  self-evidently  false  and  disgusting 
that  all  reasonable  persons  will  at  once  reject  its  assaults.  Our  attention 
was  recently  called  by  a  friend  to  a  handbill  from  a  quack  of  this  genus 
purporting  to  be  a  «'  veil  Doctor  "  with  astonishing  natural  powers.  After 
various  statements  of  his  ability,  he  has  the  assurance  to  declare  that  he 
appeared  before  the  National  Medical  Convention  of  1850  at  Washington, 
for  the  revision  of  the  PharmacopoGia,  and  demonstrated  his  remarkable 
powers.  He  then  refers  for  information  to  a  list  of  names  of  Physicians 
and  Pharmaceutists  of  New  York  and  Philadelphia,  among  the  rest  our  own, 
who  were  there  in  attendance,  and  which  he  probably  extracted  from  the 
preface  of  the  U.  S.  Pharmacopoeia.  It  need  hardly  be  said  that  the  whole 
affair  is  false,  and  that  the  use  of  names  in  this  manner,  for  a  false  pretence, 
would  subject  the  rascal  to  legal  action  under  the  proposed  new  law  of 
Pennsylvania. 
The  Cavendish  Society. — Information  is  hereby  given  that  the  13th 
volume  of  Gmelin's  Chemistry  can  now  be  had  of  us,  as  the  Society's  agent 
at  Philadelphia,  as  the  only  volume  for  1859 — price  ^5.40 — and  also  it  may 
be  well  to  state  that  Dr.  Redwood,  General  Secretary  of  the  Society,  in  a 
letter  dated  London,  Jan.  11,  1861,  states  that  the  14th  volume  of  Gmelin's 
