Am.  Jour.  Pbarm.  ! 
May,lS94.  J 
Editorial. 
251 
EDITORIAL. 
The  April  number  of  the  Journal  was  issued  so  soon  after  the  election  of  the 
present  editor  and  publishing  committee,  that  it  was  not  possible  to  make  any 
statement  regarding  the  future  policy  of  the  new  management. 
It  may  now  be  briefly  stated  that  the  standard  which  brought  the  Journal  to 
be  the  chief  exponent  of  the  scientific  and  professional  side  of  pharmacy  in 
America  will  not  be  lowered. 
The  editor  has  sought  and  received  much  sound  advice  from  various  parts  of 
the  country.  The  universal  expression  has  been  against  any  change  in  the 
dignity  and  scientific  tone  which  has  heretofore  characterized  this  Journal. 
With  such  advice  before  us,  we  are  led  to  approach  a  delicate  subject,  and  say 
that  a  large  and  eminently  respectable  element  in  the  pharmaceutical  profession 
does  not  consider  that  the  American  Journal  of  Pharmacy  has  any  competitor. 
It  occupies  an  otherwise  sadly  neglected  field  in  the  pharmacy  of  our  country, 
and  the  effort  will  continue  to  be  made  to  educate  pharmacists  to  its  standard, 
rather  than  lower  the  Journal  to  compete  in  an  already  overcrowded  territory. 
The  American  Journal  of  Pharmacy  will  be  what  the  results  of  original  work 
and  thought  from  the  more  scientific  of  our  profession  make  it.  An  effort  will 
be  made  to  largely  fill  its  pages  with  original  communications  ;  after  that,  we 
propose  to  give  brief  reviews  of  the  most  recent  results  published  elsewhere  in 
this  country  and  abroad. 
All  the  most  important  books  relating  to  pharmacy  will  be  reviewed  or  noticed. 
Finally,  the  editor  will  seek  some  material  for  editorials  from  sources  other  than 
his  own  pen,  hoping,  thereby,  to  keep  those  few  pages  constantly  alive  and 
interesting. 
While  this  Journal  has  a  history  extending  back  to  1825,  it  does  not  have  to 
lean  on  that  history  for  support ;  but  the  policy  which  gave  it  that  history  ; 
which  has  placed  it  in  many  of  the  scientific  libraries  of  Europe  ;  which  to-day 
gives  it  subscribers  and  readers  in  every  civilized  quarter  of  the  globe,  is  the 
policy  which  the  present  management  will  endeavor  not  to  deviate  far  from. 
The  first  paper  in  this  issue  is  a  direct  communication  from  its  author,  in 
response  to  a  suggestion  of  the  editor.  It  is  hoped  that  this  will  be  followed 
by  further  contributions  from  other  honorary  and  corresponding  members  of 
the  College. 
Not  only  is  the  paper  valuable  in  itself,  but  it  is  a  hint  to  our  readers  in  this 
country  that  we  have  thousands  of  indigenous  plants  with  a  local  history  and 
reputation  ;  and  some  account  of  them,  as  outlined  in  Mr.  Hooper's  paper, 
on  Myrica  Nagi,  would  be  of  present  interest,  as  well  as  of  lasting  value  in 
advancing  pharmaceutical  knowledge. 
The  Martindale  Herbarium.  —At  the  meeting  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  of 
the  Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy,  held  on  Tuesday  afternoon,  April  3d, 
Mr.  Howard  B.  French,  on  behalf  of  himself  and  Messrs.  Smith,  Kline  &  French 
Company,  presented  to  the  College  the  entire  herbarium  of  the  late  Isaac  C. 
Martindale,  of  Camden,  N.J.,  which  they  had  recently  purchased  from  the 
estate  . 
The  chairman,  Mr.  T.  Morris  Perot,  expressed  the  gratification  of  the  Board 
