EDITORIAL. 
187 
gave  the  following  results,  namely:  -424,  -347,  '343,  '308,  '486,  -468, 
•480,  -427,  -340,  -338,  and  -357.  These  figures  indicate  that  one  of  the 
specimens  is  but  just  about  half  strength.  Five  are  in  the  neighborhood 
of  seven-twelfths,  and  the  remaining  five  vary  between  eight  and  ten- 
twelfths  of  the  officinal  strength. 
These  preparations  cost  1-00,  1  00,  1*12,  1-00,  *88,  1  06,  unknown,  un- 
known, unknown,  T12,  and  TOO  per  pound. 
Opium  by  the  case,  in  the  hands  of  the  importers,  has  brought  an  aver- 
age price  of  at  least  $8  50  per  pound  throughout  the  past  year,  and  this 
opium  in  drying  loses  an  average  of  20  per  cent,  in  weight  and  there  are 
but  about  14^  troy  ounces  in  the  avoirdupois  pound,  while  each  pound  of  the 
officinal  Tincture  represents  1^  troy  ounces  of  dried  and  powdered  opium. 
Therefore,  at  the  neat  cash  price  of  opium,  the  quantity  represented  in  a 
pound  of  properly  made  tincture  costs  over  one  dollar.  Now  upon  the  theory 
that  druggists  are  generally  honest,  and  are  selling  their  tinctures  belowthe 
neat  cost  of  the  principal  ingredient,  regardless  of  cost  of  menstruum, 
time,  labor,  and  general  expenses, — to  say  nothing  of  profits, — this  prep- 
aration maybe  all  right  if  the  above  results  of  examination  be  all  wrong. 
But  if  this  theory  be  too  absurd  for  general  credence,  then  these  druggists 
and  pharmacuetists  are  chargeable  in  their  practice  with  an  amount  of 
dishonesty  which,  in  the  shape  of  a  more  bold  and  manly  variety  of  rob- 
bery, would  be  likely  to  restrict  their  opportunities  of  wrongdoing  to  the 
narrower  sphere  of  the  criminal  prisons. 
From  this  exhibition  of  the  character  of  six  prominent  represenative 
preparations  from  the  market  of  the  class  to  which  they  belong,  it  ap- 
pears that  although  not  one  of  them  comes  fully  up  to  the  officinal  stand- 
ard, yet  that,  by  a  liberal  admission,  two  of  the  most  important  ones 
may  be  considered  to  be  nearly  right,  and  to  be  progressing  in  the  desir- 
ed direction  of  becoming  entirely  right.  The  three  important  ones  of  the 
remaining  four,  however,  exhibits  a  low  character  discreditable  alike  to 
the  professions  of  medicine  and  pharmacy,  and  to  human  nature  in  general ; 
and  those  pharmaceutists  whose  moral  perceptions  at  this  day  are  left 
keen  enough  to  appreciate  the  condition  of  their  art,  and  whose  energy 
is  sufficient,  certainly  have  a  most  enviable  reputation  and  standing  with- 
in their  reach,  by  opposing  the  condit  ion  of  things  thus  indicated,  through 
what  appears  to  be  the  rarely  trodden  path  of  moral  rectitude.  Let 
some  of  us  then  try  how  it  will  pay  to  be  right  where  many  are  wrong, 
and  try  what  the  profits  of  such  a  new  drug  market  will  be." 
Of  the  special  reports  and  essays,  several  have  been  printed  in  our  last 
number,  and  in  this,  including  the  paper  of  the  late  Professor  Thomas  on 
Sanguinarina  as  a  representative  of  Bloodroot  in  therapeutics.  This  is, 
so  far  as  we  are  aware,  the  last  paper  written  by  the  lamented  author, 
and  exhibits  the  thorough  manner  usual  with  him  in  such  investiga- 
tions. Trof.  Mayer's  paper  on  the  active  principles  of  the  Strychnaceae 
possesses  much  interest  and  exhibits  the  relative  proportions  of  Strychnia 
and  Brucia  in  the  drugs  and  some  of  their  preparations. 
The  paper  by  the  Editor  of  this  Journal  on  Fluid  Extracts  is  intended 
as  a  revision  of  a  former  paper  by  the  same  author  in  the  Proceedings  of 
1859.  Other  papers  by  F.  Bringhurst  on  Oxides  of  Iron,  Maisch  on 
Tartaric  Acid  and  American  S03HO,  Scattergood  on  Marl  as  a  source  of 
potash,  F.  Stearns  on  iEsthetical  Pharmacy,  and  Parrish  on  the  Revenue 
Law,  etc.,  are  well  written  papers,  and  in  various  ways,  add  to  the 
usefulness  and  interest  of  the  work, 
