36 
Varieties. 
(Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
X       Jan.,  1P.77. 
a  locality  as  may  be  considered  necessary.  With  the  future  of  Pharmacy  in  Ger- 
many thus  clouded,  it  is  quite  natural  that  its  would-be  devotees  seek  more  lucrative 
and  promising  fields  of  labor. 
However,  while  students  of  Philosophy,  Medicine  and  Political  Science  are  year 
after  year  migrating  to  German  shores,  it  would  be  highly  gratifying  to  see  some 
representatives  among  the  American  Pharmacists,  and  while  not  detracting  from 
the  support  due  to  home  educational  institutions  or  the  high  position  attained  by 
some  American  Colleges  of  Pharmacy,  through  the  faithful  teaching  and  untiring 
industry  of  their  Professors,  the  student  is  thus  but  the  better  prepared,  and  possesses 
but  the  needed  qualifications  for  the  further  pursuit  of  such  studies,  and  the  more 
closely  allied  collateral  sciences,  thus  giving  a  stimulus  to  a  spirit  of  advancement 
and  research  which,  it  might  be  hoped,  in  connection  with  the  Colleges  of  Pharmacy 
and  various  local  organizations,  would  be  productive  of  a  still  higher  status  ot 
American  Pharmacy,  when  the  empiricism  shall  be  exposed  and  suppressed,  and 
yield  to  the  requirements  of  true  science  ;  when  the  Pharmacist  shall  no  longer  be 
looked  upon  as  a  mere  tradesman  or  the  acceptance  of  the  vocation  simply  as  a 
means  toward  the  attainment  of  selfish  ends,  but  that  it  may  meet  with  its  proper 
recognition  by  the  people,  as  standing  on  a  level  with  the  professions  of  Medicine* 
or  of  Law,  and  having  a  just  claim  on  their  protection,  and  although  in  its  nature 
in  a  degree  subservient  to  the  demands  of  Medicine,  so  also  is  Medicine  indebted 
to  and  dependent  upon  Pharmacy  and  Chemistry  for  many  of  the  remedies  daily 
employed  The  often  assumed  position  of  antagonism  between  members  of  the 
two  professions  as  to  the  right  of  prerogative  or  claim  of  superiority  from  the  stand - 
point  of  social  position  and  influence  on  the  part  of  either,  cannot  be  otherwise 
than  detrimental  to  the  highest  interests  of  both,  and  the  too  frequently  manifested 
spirit  of  animosity  should  be  supplanted  by  the  dictates  of  truer  reason. 
In  conclusion,  the  writer  would  call  the  attention  of  those  who  may  feel  interested 
upon  the  subject  of  German  Universities  in  their  various  relations  to  the  work  of 
Jas.  Morgan  Hart,  entitled  "  German  Universities,"  as  also  a  series  of  highly  inter- 
esting articles  by  the  same  author,  in  "  Lippincotfs  Magazine,"  vol.  xvii,  and  would 
also  further  extend  the  assurance  that  American  students  who  cross  the  seas  in  the 
pursuit  of  knowledge,  will  ever  meet  with  a  welcome  reception  at  the  hands  of  their 
^German  co-workers. 
Strassburg,  November,  1876. 
Castile  Soap  and  its  Counterfeits  There  are  four  descriptions  of  imported 
Castile  soap  known  in  the  American  market  First,  and  at  the  head  of  the  list  in 
reputation  is  the  Italian  white  Castile,  known  as  the  Conti  soap.  The  jobbing  price 
of  this  at  present  ranges  from  sixteen  to  sixteen  and  a  half  cents  currency.  It  is 
claimed  that  oil  only  is  used  instead  of  fat  in  its  manufacture,  either  olive  oil  that  is 
left  after  the  best  is  bottled,  or  sometimes  cocoa-nut  oil.  The  next  brand  in  repu- 
tation, and  said  to  be  equal  in  quality  and  healing  properties,  is  the  "white  horse," 
also  a  white  soap,  imported  from  Marseilles.  This  at  present  is  selling  at  twelve  to 
twelve  and  a  half  cents.  These  two  brands,  it  is  said,  are  never  counterfeited  here, 
and  are  stated  to  be  free  from  all  adulteration.  Tests  made  by  us  have  failed  to 
show  any  adulteration  or  addition  of  substances  to  add  to  the  weight,  as  is  the  case 
in  mottled  soaps.  These  white  soaps  come  in  boxes  of  thirty-five  to  thirty-seven 
pounds  gross  weight,  and  a  tare  of  four  pounds  is  allowed.  Next  come  the  Mar- 
seilles and  the  Leghorn  mottled,  the  former  claimed  to  be  the  better  of  the  two. 
The  importation  of  these  soaps  is  rapidly  falling  off,  owing  to  the  competition  of 
tthe  domestic  article,  which  as  a  rule  is  asserted  to  be  the  best  and  purest.    In  mak- 
