<J2i>itortal Department. 
Our Journal. — This number concludes the twenty-second volume. 
It is intended, in commencing the next, to adopt some means by 
which an increase in the quantity of matter can be effected, without 
materially altering the appearance of the work. It would be gratifying 
to us if the Journal could be made more practically useful to the phar- 
maceutists of this country, by their making it a medium of communi- 
cation with each other on subjects appertaining to their profession. 
The name of the Journal should give it a general character, and there 
is every disposition on the part of the Editor and Publishing Commit- 
tee to act with strict impartiality in reference to every sectional inte- 
rest. 
We have long been solicited to attach an advertising sheet to the 
Journal, but chiefly owing to the difficulty of drawing the line between 
the objectionable and the proper, it has been deferred from time to 
time. We now propose to append such a sheet, to each number, 
reserving to ourselves the full and entire right to decide on the admis- 
sibleness of the advertisements, so as not to compromise the principle 
which has heretofore characterized the work, of opposition to empyri- 
cism. New pharmaceutical preparations, the composition of which 
is not secret; business notices; book notices, etc., will be inserted, but 
nothing that can properly be considered as quackery will be admitted. 
It may be well to state in explanation, that we draw a distinction 
between a reservation of the skill and manipulations required in the 
preparation of a medicine, and a reservation of its composition. The 
most fastidious member of the College of Physicians may use Henry's 
magnesia without implicating his character as an opponent of quackery, 
because he knows what he prescribes as well as if he had witnessed 
its preparation, and any chemist can assure himself of its nature; but 
it is far different with a panacea, a vermifuge, or other complex mix- 
ture, which offers to effect wonderful results, and which appeals to 
the faith, and not to the judgment of the practitioner and consumer. 
" Fatal effects from the carelessness of an Apothecary? 1 — Under this 
heading we find the following article in the Boston Medical and Sur- 
gical Journal for August 7th, viz. : 
As mentioned briefly in last week's Journal, an accident of a very seri- 
ous nature recently occurred in this city. An apothecary, Mr. Wakefield, 
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