280 
EDITORIAL. 
Philadelphia College of Pharmacy. — The vacancy in the Chair 
of Materia Medica in this Institution, caused by the resignation of 
Professor Carson, has been filled by Dr. Robert P. Thomas of this 
city.' 
Drug Inspectors. — We recollect distinctly during a period prior to 
the enactment of the law against the importation of adulterated and 
deteriorated drugs, medicines, and chemicals, when the probable 
usefulness of such a law was discussed, it was suggested that the 
officers appointed by the government to carry it out would be subject 
to removal for political creed, and all the advantages accruing from 
experience in office would be lost by frequent change, not to speak of 
the chances of unqualified men receiving the appointment. The moral, 
intellectual and educational fitness of the officer for the position cannot 
be too strongly insisted on in filling this station — it is not a mere ques- 
tion of dollars and cents between the government and the importers that 
he is called upon to arbitrate — it is whether deteriorated drugs shall 
be poured upon our shores from the rejected stock of Europe, to be 
bought up and dispensed by the unprincipled and the ignorant — it is 
whether adulterated medicines and chemical preparations shall be 
scattered far and wide over our country to disappoint the skill of the 
physician and render his weapons useless in their inactivity — it is 
whether the stricken one, prostrated Joy disease, the centre of deep 
and anxious sympathy, shall, be hastened to the tomb through the im- 
potency of medical agents which, when pure, are able to conquer and 
check its inroads. These are questions which the Honorable 
Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Meredith, of Philadelphia, should have 
examined before he interfered with the action of this wholesome law, 
by removing an incumbent well qualified for the position by education 
and talent, and enjoying the confidence and respect of the Importers, 
Druggists and Physicians, of this city, and replacing him by — whom ? ! 
Is it true that the present incumbent enjoys the confidence and respect 
of that portion of the community with whose interests he is con- 
cerned? Is it true that he possesses that knowledge and those qualifi- 
cations which a conscientious discharge of the duties of the office 
demand ? If so, why is it that a remonstrance, the spontaneous 
expression of a highly respectable class in the community, should have 
gone to the appointing power? Better, far better, that the inspector- 
ships had never been created, than by making their executors the 
subject of political reward for partizan services, to risk its being filled 
by men wholly unfit for the service, and whose inspection will be far 
from giving character to the drugs that pass through their hands. 
