550 
Editorial. 
f  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
August,  1 918. 
The  need  for  specially  trained  examiners  in  the  patent  office  is 
conceded.  At  times,  this  department  has  been  criticized  on  account 
of  patents  issued  without  a  proper  examination  of  the  scientific 
literature  that  would  have  demonstrated  the  lack  of  the  originality 
or  novelty  claimed  in  the  patent  application  and  on  which  the  patent 
issue  was  made. 
In  the  December,  191 7,  number  of  the  American  Journal  of 
Pharmacy,  editorial  comment  was  made  under  the  title  of  "  The 
Departments  of  the  Government  Need  the  Advice  of  the  Drug 
Trade."  In  this,  attention  was  called  to  the  fact  that  "  many  of  the 
rules  and  regulations  promulgated  by  the  federal  departments  show 
prima  facie  a  lack  of  actual  knowledge  of  the  industries  affected. 
This  is  especially  true  as  to  the  requirements  of  the  drug  trade 
and  the  prevailing  conditions  and  trade  customs  under  which  the 
supplying  of  the  needs  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  country  for  med- 
icines and  the  industries  for  drug  and  chemical  products  has  been 
carried  on." 
It  is  our  contention  that  each  Department  of  the  Federal  Gov- 
ernment should  have  associated  an  advisory  board  composed  of 
specialists  in  the  various  industries  who  could  advise  with  the  De- 
partment as  to  the  appropriateness  of  the  rules  and  regulations  pro- 
mulgated and  the  possibilities  of  legislation  affecting  these  industries. 
Under  the  present  war  conditions,  the  government  has  found  it 
exceedingly  valuable  to  have  the  advice  of  specialists  in  the  various 
industries  and  manufactures,  and  there  is  at  all  times  a  corre- 
sponding need  for  such  advice  on  the  questions  that  arise  under 
conditions  of  peaceful  activities  as  well  as  the  activities  of  war 
times. 
G.  M.  B. 
THE  IMPORTANCE  OF  THE  PHARMACIST  TO 
MANKIND. 
In  an  address  delivered  at  the  celebration  of  the  twenty-fifth 
anniversary  of  the  School  of  Pharmacy  of  the  Northwestern  Uni- 
versity in  191 1,  Dr.  Oscar  Oldberg,  then  dean  of  that  School  of 
Pharmacy,  made  the  above  title  the  topic  of  his  address.  His  ex- 
hortation to  pharmacists  was  "  I  venture  to  call  upon  all  Pharma- 
cists present  to  begin  here  and  now  a  vigorous  campaign  to  compel 
