32Q 
Editorial. — Obituary. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
June,  1878. 
sideration  of  the  committee  named,  because,  under  the  disguise  of  an  honest  pur- 
pose, it  displayed  a  tendency  which  could  not  have  been  better  hidden  if  the  bill  had 
been  drafted  by  those  whom  it  would  have  benefitted,  namely,  the  vendors  of 
diplomas.  The  main  feature  of  the  bill  was  that  no  one  should  be  allowed  to  com- 
mence the  business  of  an  apothecary,  except  after  showing  a  diploma  to  the  clerk  of 
a  certain  court  and  being  registered.  No  inquiry  into  the  character  of  the  diploma 
or  of  the  institution  granting  it  was  provided  for;  the  passage  of  the  bill  would 
have  secured  a  harvest  for  diploma  mills  at  home  and  abroad. 
After  the  defeat  of  this  bill  another  one  was  brought  forward  which,  particularly 
from  the  second  "whereas,"  leads  to  the  supposition  that  it  emanates  from  the  same 
source  that  fathered  the  first  one.  This  time  it  was  prefaced  by  an  article  full  of 
misrepresentations,  which  had  been  furnished  to  and  published  by  a  daily  paper,  and 
has  recently  been  reproduced,  with  slight  modifications,  by  a  weekly.  We  now 
regret  that  we  did  not  take  a  full  copy  of  the  first  bill  referred  to,  but  this  second 
one,  we  think,  equally  deserves  to  be  preserved,  inasmuch  as  it  was  printed  together 
with  the  article  referred  to  above.    It  is  as  follows  : 
At  a  meeting  of  the  Independent  Apothecaries  of  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  held  on  February  28th, 
1878,  it  was  unanimously  resolved  to  lay  this  matter  before  the  Legislature,  and  to  request  that  the  follow- 
ing bill,  which  was  drafted  by  a  member  of  the  Philadelphia  Bar,  may  be  enacted  into  a  law,  or  a  general 
law  passed  for  the  whole  State  : 
AN  ACT 
To  repeal  the  "Act  to  Regulate  tlie  Practice  of  Pharmacy,  and  Sale  of  Poisons,  etc.,  in  the  City  of 
Philadelphia,  approved  April  4th,  1872. 
Whereas,  The  Act  to  Regulate  the  Practice  of  Pharmacy,  and  Sale  of  Poisons,  etc.,  in  the  City  of 
Philadelphia,  approved  on  April  4th,  1872,  being  only  a  local  law  establishing  a  "  Pharmaceutical  Exam- 
ining Board,"  should  be  abolished. 
And  whereas,  The  Act  relative  to  the  Sale  of  Academic  Degrees,  approved  on  May  19th,  1871,  is  a 
general  law,  and  affords  ample  protection  to  all  the  people  of  all  parts  of  the  State  of  Pennsylvania. 
Therefore, 
Section  I.  Be  it  enacted,  etc.,  That  the  "  Act  to  Regulate  the  Practice  of  Pharmacy,  and  Sale  of 
Poisons,  etc.,  in  the  City  of  Philadelphia,  approved  on  April  4th,  1872,"  be  and  the  same  is  hereby 
repealed. 
OBITUARY. 
Professor  Joseph  Henry,  well  known  as  the  Secretary  of  the  Smithsonian 
Institution,  and  one  of  the  most  distinguished  scientists  in  the  United  States,  died  in 
Washington,  D.  C,  May  13.  He  was  born  in  Albany,  N.  Y.,  December  17,  1797, 
became  a  watchmaker,  civil  engineer  and  afterwards  professor  of  mathematics  in 
the  Albany  Academy.  He  then  directed  his  attention  to  physics,  and  more  particularly 
to  electricity  and  magnetism,  in  which  he  made  several  important  discoveries.  He 
had  held  the  chair  of  natural  philosophy  at  Princeton  College  for  fourteen  years, 
when,  in  1846,  he  was  called  to  Washington  to  draw  up  a  plan  for  the  organization 
of  the  Smithsonian  Institution,  and  was  subsequently  elected  secretary  or  director  of 
it,  an  office  which  he  held  ever  since.  He  served  the  general  government,  without 
extra  compensation,  as  chairman  of  the  light-house  board  and  in  other  capacities.  He 
was  President  of  the  National  Academy  of  Sciences  and  of  the  American  Asso- 
ciation for  the  Advancement  of  Education,  and  he  organized  a  system  of  volunteer 
meteorological  observations,  which  subsequently  became  the  basis  on  which  the 
weather  bureau  was  organized. 
