602 
Editorial. 
{Am,  Jour.  Pharm. 
1  December,  1900. 
papers  upon  the  economy  of  alcohol  in  percolation,  repercolation, 
and  devised  apparatus  of  all  kinds  for  carrying  on  pharmaceutical 
manipulations  and  chemical  and  urinary  analyses.  His  knowledge 
of  physics  and  chemistry,  together  with  his  mechanical  ingenuity, 
enabled  him  to  foresee  practical  difficulties  that  inventors  of  new 
apparatus  did  not  seem  to  have  taken  into  account.  (See  Proc. 
A.  Ph.  A.,  1865,  p.  75.) 
The  papers  published  by  Dr.  Squibb  were  numerous  indeed.  In 
the  American  Journal  of  Pharmacy  alone  over  100  papers  have 
been  published  since  1857.  The  last  of  these  was  published  in 
July  of  this  year.  An  examination  of  these  papers  shows  that  the 
subjects  which  he  selected  were  those  of  fundamental  importance  in 
pharmacy.  Besides  this  work  in  original  papers,  Dr.  Squibb  con- 
tributed much  of  his  time  and  valuable  services  on  various  com- 
mittees of  the  A.  Ph.  A.  It  was  Dr.  Squibb  who,  in  1863  (Proc, 
p.  42),  offered  a  resolution  for  the  appointment  of  a  Permanent  Com- 
mittee on  the  Pharmacopoeia  of  the  A.  Ph.  A.  The  usefulness  of 
the  labors  of  this  committee  has  seen  its  fruition  in  the  various 
sub-committees  of  the  Committee  of  Revision  of  the  U.S. P.  In 
1866  (Proc,  p.  88),  as  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  the  Internal 
Revenue  Law,  he  made  an  extended  report,  which  may  be  consid- 
ered even  to-day  worthy  of  the  careful  study  of  those  who  are 
interested  in  such  subjects. 
Dr.  Squibb  was  among  the  first  to  appreciate  the  necessity  of  the 
study  of  the  quality  of  drugs.  His  "  Note  on  Rhubarb  "  (Proc, 
1869,  p.  398)  is  an  admirable  essay,  showing  the  responsibility  of 
the  pharmacist  in  buying  drugs  and  making  preparations  therefrom. 
It  contains  a  lesson  which  has  been  learned  well  by  a  few  successful 
pharmacists  and  manufacturers,  but  the  great  rank  and  file  have  not 
appreciated  the  fine  points,  and  the  result  has  been  that  physicians 
who  at  first  prescribed  a  few  of  the  special  products  of  manufac- 
turers because  they  knew  the  care  and  attention  which  was  being 
devoted  to  their  manufacture,  now  are  specifying  certain  manufac- 
turers' products  for  nearly  all  the  ingredients  which  they  need  in 
their  prescriptions.  This  will  be  done  until  pharmacists  generally 
learn  the  lesson  that  cheap  goods  are  generally  poor  in  quality,  and 
that  to  shift  the  responsibility  upon  some  one  else  is  not  to  their 
credit,  and  that,  furthermore,  brains  and  ability  must  be  coupled 
with  conscience  and  industry  in  the  making  of  every  medicament 
prescribed  by  the  physician  or  called  for  by  the  people. 
