AMFen;iP872RM'}         Pharmaceutical  Colleges,  etc.  89 
Prof.  Bridges  then  spoke  of  the  bicarbonate  of  soda  presented  to  the  College 
from  the  Pennsylvania  Salt  Works,  at  Natrona  (on  exhibition  at  our  last  meet- 
ing), and  stated  that  he  had  examined  one  specimen,  and  that  several  others 
were  in  course  of  examination  by  one  of  the  students  in  the  practical  labora- 
tory connected  with  our  College.  The  specimens  will  probably  prove  to  be 
almost  free  from  carbonate. 
Prof.  Maisch  stated  that  the  specimen  of  capsicum  presented  by  Mr.  Hein- 
itsh  at  a  former  meeting,  was  the  Capsicum  minimum  indigenous  to  Mexico. 
Mr.  Heinitsh  said  that  it  had  been  introduced  from  Mexico  into  several  of  our 
Southern  States  by  some  army  officers,  and  that  the  name  given  to  it  by  the 
Mexicans  signified  in  our  language  "mad  pepper." 
The  meeting  then  adjourned. 
Edwin  McC.  Boring,  Registrar  pro  tern. 
^bitotial  Department. 
The  Language  used  in  Prescriptions. — Several  times  since  its  creation,  the 
New  York  Board  for  examining  and  licensing  druggists  and  prescription 
clerks,  has  found  it  necessary  to  use  the  daily  press  for  the  purpose  of  explain- 
ing their  action  to  the  public.  These  effusions  are  not  always  very  happy  ones, 
and  have  sometimes  produced  an  effect  quite  opposite  to  the  one  intended* 
Such  a  one  was  contained  in  the  New  York  Times  of  January  9th.  We  have 
no  intention  to  analyze  that  document,  which  was  partly  done  by  Mr.  D.  C_ 
Bobbins  in  the  same  newspaper,  issued  January  11th,  and  we  do  not  believe 
that  it  would  be  of  sufficient  interest  to  our  readers  to  point  out  the  numerous 
mistakes  and  logical  contradictions  contained  therein.  But  a  statement  re- 
quires to  be  noticed  since  it  is  apt  to  be  used  by  the  public  as  an  argument 
against  the  employment  of  Latin  as  the  technical  language  of  prescription.  We 
are  informed  that  a  number  of  applicants  could  not  make  out  a  prescription, 
calling  for  Tinct.  gentian,  co.,  Infus.  ejusd.  (namely  Infus.  gentian,  co.),  arid 
that  such  a  prescription  had  actually  been  sent  away  by  a  number  of  New  York 
apothecaries  as  unintelligible,  until  the  mysterious  ejusdem  (of  the  like)  was 
finally  correctly  interpreted  by  a  man  of  twenty  years  experience  in  the  busi- 
ness. 
This  reminds  us  of  a  story  we  heard  twenty  years  ago  in  our  National  Capi- 
tal, where  a  prescription  was  said  to  have  been  received  calling,  among  other 
articles,  for  Aq.  bull, ;  the  apothecary,  anxious  to  fill  the  prescription,  retained 
it  and  sent  to  some  of  his  professional  friends  for  the  required  bull's  water,  un- 
til he  was  informed  that  boiling  water  was  meant.  Now,  if  this  was  not  true, 
it  was  at  least  well  invented. 
In  the  above  mentioned  newspaper  article  it  is,  however,  granted  that  most 
of  the  aspirants  were  familiar  with  the  Latin  names  of  the  drugs  and  medicines, 
and  that  they  can  manage  to  scrub  along  until  some  extra  careful  (.'  ?)  physician 
writes  an  elaborate  series  of  directions  in  Latin.  The  italicized  passage  needs 
no  comment  either  for  sensible  physicians  or  practical  pharmacists  ;  it  was  not 
