270  Reviews,  etc.  {AmdZ**^ 
Fourteenth  Annual  Report  of  the  Alumni  Association,  with  the  exercises  of  the  fifty- 
seventh  commencement  of  the  Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy.  Philadelphia, 
1878.    8vo,  pp.  63. 
The  title-page  of  this  pamphlet  makes  the  erroneous  statement  that  the  com- 
mencement of  March  last  was  the  yor^-seventh  of  this  College,  while  in  point  of 
fact  lectures  have  been  delivered  annually  without  interruption  since  1821,  so  that 
the  course  last  closed  was  the  ^/f/^-seventh  held  in  that  institution.  The  introduc- 
tory lecture  at  the  opening  and  the  valedictory  delivered  at  the  close  of  that  course, 
the  annual  address  to  the  alumni  by  Dr.  A.  W.  Miller,  an  account  of  the  transac- 
tions at  the  reception  tendered  to  the  last  graduating  class,  minutes  of  the  annual 
meeting  and  of  the  executive  board,  together  with  office]•s,  reports  and  a  list  of  the 
graduating  class,  comprise  the  contents  of  this  pamphlet,  which  the  alumni  of  the 
college  may  obtain  by  addressing  Wallace  Procter,  900  Lombard  street,  vice  presi- 
dent of  the  association. 
Proceedings  of  the  Western  Wholesale  Drug  Association,  in  convention  at  Louisville, 
Ky.,  Feb.  13  and  14,  1878.  Cincinnati:  Printed  at  the  Aldine  Printing  Works. 
Pp.  45. 
This  association  was  organized  at  Indianapolis  in  1876  (see  "Am.  Jour.  Phar.," 
1876,  p.  233).  Its  objects,  as  expressed  in  the  preamble  to  the  constitution,  are — 
"to  create  a  permanent  social  feeling  between  the  wholesale  druggists  of  the  West 
— to  obliterate  the  feeling  of  distrust  and  jealousy  that  seems  to  exist — to  correct 
excessive  and  unmercantile  competition — to  remove,  by  concert  of  action,  all  evils 
and  customs  that  are  against  good  policy  and  sound  business  principles — to  establish 
rules  and  regulations  that  all  differences  and  grievances  may  be  fairly  and  equitably 
adjusted."  The  objects,  it  must  be  admitted,  if  faithfully  carried  out,  would 
redound  likewise  to  the  benefit  of  the  retail  trade  ;  and  after  carefully  reading  the 
proceedings  we  must  say  that  the  decided  stand  taken  in  the  reports  presented 
against  inferior  quality  of  goods,  and  in  favor  of  honorable  dealing,  merits  the  support 
of  the  intelligent  pharmacist,  as  it  concerns  likewise  the  wholesale  trade.  We  need 
not  leave  the  large  cities  to  notice  the  ruinous  competition  in  the  sale  of  well- 
known  articles,  aiming,  like  the  higgler  on  the  street,  at  catching  customers  by  exces- 
sively low  prices  for  such  articles,  and  charging  extortionate  rates  for  others 
the  value  of  which  cannot  be  judged  by  the  purchaser.  Credit  in  business,  adulter- 
ation of  drugs,  some  of  the  follies  of  the  Wood  tariff  bill  now  before  Congress, 
received  due  attention,  and  the  convention  finally  adjourned  to  meet  at  Chicago  next 
year  on  the  second  Wednesday  of  November. 
The  officers  for  the  present  year  are  :  President,  A.  Peter,  Louisville ;  Vice  Presi- 
dents, C.  F.  G.  Meyer,  St.  Louis;  Jas.  S.  Burdsal,  Cincinnati;  Geo.  A.  Kelly, 
Pittsburg;  D.  R.  Noyes,  St.  Paul,  and  Wm.  Letterer,  Nashville;  Treasurer,  S.  M. 
Strong,  Cleveland;  Secretary,  J.  W.  Plummer,  Chicago.  There  was  also  appointed 
a  board  of  control,  and  committees  on  price  lists  and  circulars,  on  credits,  on  com- 
mercial travelers,  on  legislation,  drug  market,  membership,  fire  insurance,  proprie- 
tary goods  and  on  adulteration  of  drugs. 
