Am.  Jour  Pharm.  \ 
June,  I877.  J 
Editorial. 
kind  which  <voill  cure  chapped  hands,  and  is  unequaled  as  an  earth  dressing;  and  a 
tooth-powder,  made  with  the  latter  soap,  is  stated  to  surpass  anything  of  the  kind  ever 
offered  to  the  public. 
Our  cotemporary  has  done  good  service  in  battling  against  the  nostrum  evil,  yet 
in  this  case  he  has  evidently  seen  the  mote  in  his  brother's  eye  without  noticing  the 
beam  in  his  own. 
Bullrich's  Salt. — A  correspondent  made  inquiry  about  the  composition  of  Bull- 
rich's  Salt,  and,  on  confessing  our  ignorance,  referred  us  to  the  "  Text-Book  of 
Practical  Medicine,"  by  Professor  Dr.  Felix  von  Niemeyer,  vol  II,  page  504,  where 
the  following  passage  occurs  : 
"It  cannot  be  denied  that  in  recent  times  the  regular  therapeutic  employment  of 
the  so  called  Bullrich's  salt,  a  mixture  of  bicarbonate  and  sulphuret  of  soda,  rivals  the 
world-renowned  success  of  these  springs  (Kissengen,  Karlsbad,  Wiesbaden,  Hom- 
burg  and  Vichy) — a  fact  which  is  at  least  opposed  to  the  asserted  latent  peculiarities 
and  advantages  of  the  natural  solutions  of  salt." 
A  high  laudation,  indeed,  from  such  an  authority,  who,  however,  gives  no  infor- 
mation as  to  how  that  salt  came  to  its  peculiar  name.  Not  finding  it  mentioned  in 
any  of  the  works  at  our  command,  we  applied  to  a  friend  who  for  several  years  had 
been  a  pharmaceutical  assistant  in  Berlin,  and  learned  from  him  that  a  merchant  of 
Berlin,  by  the  name  of  Bullrich,  had  sold  large  quantities  of  a  salt,  for  which,  when 
called  for,  the  apothecaries  dispensed  bicarbonate  of  sodium.  It  is  strange  that  that 
excellent  compendium,  Wittstein's  "  Geheimmittellehre,"  has  taken  no  notice  of  it, 
but  stranger  still  that  a  nostrum  should  be  deemed  worthy  of  regular  therapeutic 
employment,  and  be  lauded  in  a  widely  known  medical  work  as  rivaling  the  ivorld- 
renonvned  success  of  the  springs  mentioned  above. 
Resolutions  of  the  Philadelphia  County  Medical  Society,  in  reference  to  Dr. 
Squibb's  proposition  to  modify  the  manner  of  revising  the  U.S.  Pharmacopoeia. — 
At  a  large  meeting  of  the  Society,  after  a  free  interchange  of  sentiment  between 
the  members,  the  following  resolutions  were  adopted  as  offered  by  Dr.  Nebinger  : 
Resolved,  That  in  the  opinion  of  the  Philadelphia  County  Medical  Society,  the  propositions  of  Dr. 
Squibb  to  modify  the  period  of  revision  of  the  United  States  Pharmacopoeia  and  other  proposed  reforms, 
are  deserving  of  careful  consideration  by  the  Medical  and  Pharmaceutical  professions. 
Resolved.  That  in  the  judgment  of  this  Society,  such  reforms  and  modifications  of  ancient  plans  can 
be  more  safely  entrusted  to  the  National  Convention  of  the  Pharmacopceia  and  its  committee  of  revision, 
than  to  any  new  organization 
Resolved,  That  the  action  of  this  Society  be  officially  transmitted  to  Dr.  John  C.  Riley,  President  of 
the  Pharmacopoeial  Convent'on  at  Washington,  to  Dr.  Bowditch,  President  of  the  American  Medical 
Association  at  Chicago,  and  to  Dr.  Squibb  of  Brooklyn. 
Resolved,  That  these  resolutions  be  also  published  in  the  Druggists'  Circular,  Chicago  Pharma- 
cist, Medical  News,  Philadelphia  Medical  Tunes,  Medical  and  Surgical  Reporter,  The  American 
yournal  of  Pharmacy,  New  York  Medical  Record,  and  New  Remedies,  as  soon  as  possible. 
Dr.  Albert  H.  Smith  presented  the  following  resolutions  which  were  unanimously 
adopted  : 
Resolved,  That  this  So  .iety  does  not  recognize  the  legal  or  moral  right  of  the  American  Medical 
Association  to  assume  the  work  of  issuing  a  Pharmacopceia  as  proposed,  nor  its  fitness  for  the  work,  if 
such  right  existed. 
