4io 
Editorial. 
{  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
t      Aug.,  1878. 
dence  will  be  reposed  because  confidence  has  now  a  sure  foundation,  and  troops  of 
friends  will  hasten  to  express  practical  sympathy  with  one  so  outrageously  fleeced. 
Conclusion. —  It  is  no  part  of  my  purpose  to  cast  reproach  upon  the  court,  or  to 
inveigh  against  the  lawyers.  The  fairness  and  uprightness  of  the  learned  Judge 
needs  no  endorsement  of  mine  The  shrewdness  and  ability  of  the  counsel  are 
known  to  all  men.  Whether  it  would  not  have  been  wise  and  well  for  the  Judge  to 
have  ruled  that  the  law  was  never  intended  to  be  used,  as  in  this  case,  to  perpetrate 
injustice — and  that  it  should  not  be  so  used — is  a  question  for  him.  Whether  a 
lawyer  cannot  be  smart,  and  at  the  same  time  a  gentleman,  is  a  question  purely  of 
taste.  As  medical  men  and  good  citizens  it  is  our  duty  to  labor  for  the  repeal  of  a 
law  which  rewards  ignorance  with  special  privileges,  which  affords  ample  facilities 
for  fraud  and  extortion,  and  which  shamelessly  muzzles  every  witness  whose  testi- 
mony would  uphold  the  right  and  trample  down  the  wrong. 
Dr.  Benedict  spoke  of  sharks  outside  of  the  legal  profession.  He  gave  a  descrip- 
tion of  the  marine  shark,  and  drew  a  parallel  picture  of  the  land  shark.  His 
remarks  were  by  turns  hnmorous  and  sarcastic.  He  related  instances  where  human 
pilot-fishes  secured  medical  prey  for  the  too  willing  sharks.  He  paid  a  high  com- 
pliment to  the  skill  and  integrity  of  Mr.  Eaton  He  stated  that  atropia  and  all  the 
vegetable  neurotics  are  evanescent  in  their  effects.  He  doubted  not  that  but  for  the 
efforts  of  the  pilot-fish,  Eno  would  never  have  attempted  the  consumption  of  Eaton. 
He  paid  a  glowing  tribute  to  the  work  and  disinterestedness  of  the  medical  pro- 
fession, and  appealed  to  the  doctors  not  to  act  as  pilot-fish  to  sharks  of  any  kind. 
Dr.  R.  F.  Stevens  expressed  his  belief  that  a  great  wrong  has  been  done  by  the 
recent  verdict,  wrong  to  the  druggists  and  public  generally.  He  thought  it  was  an  out- 
rage to  exclude  competent  testimony  and  admit  that  of  those  who  are  not  author- 
ized to  practice.  Druggists  and  physicians  are  in  peril  if  this  law  is  to  be 
enforced. 
Dr.  Dunlap  briefly  remarked  that  it  was  well  known  that  the  effects  of  belladonna 
were  transitory. 
Dr.  Doane  wished  the  medical  profession  could  expel  all  the  sharks.  He  could 
see  no  reason  why  a  man  suffering  from  intoxication  produced  by  atropia  should 
make  any  more  fuss  than  if  he  were  drunk  from  alcohol.  He  thought  that  the 
verdict  was  obtained  by  the  exclusion  of  evidence.  He  approved  the  writing  out  of 
'drachms  and  ounces  instead  of  using  symbols.  If  the  man  did  not  suffer  any  per- 
manent wrong,  why  should  he  be  paid  for  it.  Hundreds  and  thousands  of  persons 
have  been  poisoned  temporarily  by  belladonna.  The  effects  are  never  per- 
manent. 
Dr.  Hawley  judged  from  what  he  had  heard  that  the  druggist  had  been  wronged, 
although  he  had  made  a  mistake.  He  endorsed  Dr.  Benedict's  eulogy  of  the  medi- 
cal profession  and  denunciation  of  sharks. 
Dr.  S  H.  Moore  commented  on  the  duties  of  druggists  and  physician.  He 
reflected  severely  on  Drs.  Didama  and  Benedict. 
Dr.  W.  Manlius  Smith  said  that  one-eighth  of  a  grain  of  atropia  is  an  inconve- 
nient but  never  a  fatal  dose.  Atropia  is  anti-inflammatory  instead  of  inflammatory. 
The  early  cases  which  seemed  to  show  inflammation  of  stomach  were  produced  by 
the  staining  of  the  berries.  No  recent  authority  speaks  of  inflammation  of  the 
stomach  as  the  result  of  atropia.  Regarding  paralysis,  Von  Bceck  says,  that  the 
tossing  about  of  the  patient  shows  he  is  not  paralyzed ;   that  afterwards  there  is 
