Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  ) 
May  1,  1872.  J 
Editorial. 
235 
renders  the  attendance  at  their  annual  reunions  usually  less  numerous  than 
was  probably  anticipated.  Besides  those  residing  in  and  near  Philadel- 
phia, few  can  spare  the  time,  leaving  the  expense  out  of  consideration,  to  be 
present  every  year.  But  every  graduate  might,  and  through  the  medium  of 
this  Association  ought  to,  remain  in  communication  with  his  Alma  Mater,  and 
we  therefore  refer  with  pleasure  to  the  advertisement  of  its  Secretary,  in  which 
such  a  plan  is  suggested,  Perhaps,  if  more  general  reunions  were  contemplated, 
say  decennially,  they  would  become  interesting  occasions,  and  would  probably 
attract  many  of  the  older  graduates  by  the  prospect  of  meeting  their  collegiate 
friends,  and  view  the  changes  which  time  has  wrought,  not  only  by  thinning 
their  former  circles,  but  likewise  by  replenishing  the  broken  links  with  younger 
members  of  the  profession  ;  the  institution  from  which  they  obtained  their 
honors  would  certainly  receive  a  fair  share  of  their  attention. 
The  Pharmacy  Bill  for  Ohio  failed  to  pass  on  the  19th  of  April,  lacking 
seven  votes  to  secure  its  passage.  A  friend  of  this  measure  very  pertinently 
writes  on  this  subject :  "A  short  time  ago,  two  young  men  took  Seidlitz  pow- 
ders ;  one  died  within  an  hour  or  two,  the  other  was  barely  saved  ;  the  analysis 
by  Mr.  Fenneli  showed  arsenic.  If  such  an  accident  happened  to  the  members 
of  the  Legislature,  perhaps  they  would  show  more  interest  in  this  movement.'' 
We  have  read  the  testimony  in  this  case  before  the  coroner  in  the  Cincinnati 
newspapers,  and  were  astonished  that  no  question  was  asked  about  the  place 
where  arsenic  was  kept,  and  no  investigation  made  of  the  contents  of  the  vessels 
from  which  the  powders  were  said  to  have  been  put  up.  From  the  published 
evidence,  this  might  just  as  well  be  a  case  of  suicide,  as  of  criminal  neglect. 
Science  in  the  Courts. — The  protracted  trial  of  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Gr.  Whar- 
ton on  the  charge  of  poisoning  General  W.  S.  Ketchum,  which  took  place  a 
few  months  ago,  at  Annapolis,  Md.,  and  lasted  forty-three  days,  is  fresh  in  the 
memory  of  our  readers,  as  is  also  the  voluminous  expert  testimony  submitted  to 
the  jury.  It  is  not  our  purpose  to  review  the  same,  but  merely  to  state  that 
Professor  Aiken's  testimony  furnished  merely  presumptive,  but  not  conclusive, 
evidence  of  the  presence  of  antimony  in  the  stomach  of  the  deceased,  because, 
1,  he  did  not  take  proper  precautions  against  interference  with  his  results  during 
his  absence  ;  2,  he  kept  no  notes,  but  relied  mainly  upon  his  memory;  3,  his 
written  reports  differed  materially  from  each  other;  4,  he  had  not  recently  ex- 
amined the  reagents  employed  as  to  their  purity ;  5,  he  did  not  preserve  the  re- 
sults of  his  investigation  for  subsequent  verification  by  other  experts,  if  deemed 
necessary;  6,  after  destroying  the  organic  matter  by  hydrochloric  acid  and 
chlorate  of  potassa,  he  relied  solely  upon  the  following  experiments  to  establish 
the  absence  of  arsenic  :  sulphuretted  hydrogen  produced  a  dark  brownish  pre- 
cipitate, which  was  very  sparingly  dissolved  by  ammonia  ;  7,  without  destroy- 
ing the  organic  matter,  the  following  tests  only  were  employed  to  prove  the 
presence  of  antimony ;  sulphuretted  hydrogen  produced  ajbrownish-red  precipi- 
tate, which  was  dissolved  in  muriatic  acid;  the  solution  yielded  with  water  a 
white  precipitate,  which  turned  orange  red  with  sulphide  of  ammonium,  and  was 
soluble  in  nitric  acid. 
