Am.  Joun.  Pharm.  ( 
March  1, 1872.  J 
Editorial. 
139 
of  Pennsylvania."  It  provides  for  a  board,  to  be  appointed  by  the  Governor 
for  three  years,  consisting  of  two  skilled  physicians  and  one  (unskilled  ?)  drug- 
gist. This  board  is  to  examine  and  license  all  druygists  and  clerks  for  a  fee  of 
thirty  dollars  each,  to  be  appropriated  as  a  compensation  for  the  services  of 
said  board,  the  balance,  if  amy,  to  be  paid  into  the  State  Treasury.  There  being 
no  provision  as  to  the  place  where  the  forunate  three  or  a  majority  thereof  shall 
meet,  of  course  the  pharmacists  residing  on  the  Delaware  may  be  required  to 
apply  for  examination  on  the  Monongahela  River  or  Lake  Erie,  and  vice  versa. 
No  provision  is  made  for  any  redress  against  the  decisions  of  this  august  board. 
The  members  are  irresponsible  for  three  years,  and  pocket  $30  from  every 
"  vender  of  medicines,''  and  every  unfortunate  person  who  may  be  "employed 
as  clerk  by  any  druggist,  keeper,  proprietor  or  superintendent  of  any  drug  store 
in  the  State." 
We  recommend  this  bill  to  the  careful  consideration,  not  only  of  those  who,  at 
its  passage,  may  be  engaged  as  "  druggists,  venders  of  medicines,"  &c,  but  also 
to  those  who  may  be  in  need  of  a  fat  office.  Verily,  the  New  York  law  is  an 
innocent  babe  compared  with  this  one,  which  we  are  informed  was  concocted 
in  Philadelphia,  and,  as  stated  before,  very  properly  postponed  indefinitely  by 
the  Senate. 
The  Bogus  Diploma  Business,  which  has  been  carried  on  in  the  city  of  Phil- 
adelphia for  a  number  of  years  past,  has  at  last  attracted  the  attention  of  the 
Legislature,  and  the  Senate  has  appointed  a  committee  to  investigate  the  mat- 
ter. Several  meetings  have  been  held,  and  very  curious  facts  have  been  elicited. 
A  Dr.  Bissell  declined  to  answer  the  question,  whether  he  knew  anything  about 
the  sale  of  diplomas,  because  it  might  criminate  himself.  Mr.  Jos.  B.  Reed, 
reporter  of  the  "Age."  testified  that  Dr.  Buchanan,  of  the  Eclectic  Medical 
College,  offered  him  a  diploma  for  $25.  Mr.  0.  S.  Bates  obtained  his  diploma 
from  the  same  college  after  six  months' study ;  he  kills  small-pox  with  sweet 
spirits  of  nitre  and  cold  water,  has  a  right  to  do  as  he  pleases  with  his  own 
patients,  and  doctored  several  years  before  he  got  his  diploma.  Dan.  Parlow, 
colored,  an  herb  doctor,  received,  as  a  mark  of  honor,  a  diploma  from  Dr.  Bu- 
chanan through  Dr.  Bissell.  A  W.  H.  Hack?,  colored,  attended  two  courses, 
of  about  six  lectures  each,  at  the  American  University  of  Philadelphia,  and 
obtained  a  diploma  for  $25.  Jonathan  Davis,  colored,  received  his  diploma 
from  the  same  institution,  for  $30,  after  attending  one  course  of  (six  ?)  lectures. 
Dr.  Dan.  M.  Fleming  received  an  honorary  degree  from  the  Philadelphia  Uni- 
versity of  Medicine  and  Surgery  for  $30.  Dr.  Harbison  told  Dr.  Hylton  that 
he  could  get  Paine's  diplomas  (Philadelphia  University  of  Medicine  and  Sur- 
gery) to  sell  to  any  one  who  wished  to  buy  them. 
The  above  comprises  only  a  very  small  portion  of  the  testimony  before  the 
Senate  committee,  the  investigation  not  being  concluded. 
Explosions  in  Chemical  Manipulations. —  At  the  meeting  of  the  Imperial 
Academy  of  Sciences  at  Vienna,  held  January  4th  last,  Professor  Dr.  F.  C. 
Schneider  communicated  his  experiments  made  with  the  view  to  obtain  iodine 
compounds  of  a  composition  analogous  to  hypochlorites,  chlorites  and  hypochlo- 
