Am.  Jour.  Pharm."! 
January,  1896.  J 
Editorial. 
45 
The  lint  that  is  removed  from  the  seed  by  the  process  of  relinting 
is  used  for  such  purposes  as  padding  clothing  and  cheap  furniture. 
The  annual  production  of  oil  in  1888  was  500,000  barrels,  while 
in  1 893  it  reached  940,000  barrels. 
The  uses  of  the  oil  in  place  of  hog's  lard  for  culinary  purposes,  as- 
an  adulterant  of  more  expensive  oils,  as  a  constituent  of  oleomar- 
garine, or  butterine,  and  in  the  manufacture  of  high-class  soaps,  are 
all  well  known. 
EDITORIAL. 
No  apology  is  offered  for  the  dearth  of  editorial  comments  in  this  number, 
except  the  very  obvious  one  that  they  are  crowded  out  by  original  matter. 
Only  one  contribution  has  been  copied  from  another  publication,  and  that  from 
a  source  inaccessible  to  most  readers  of  this  Journal. 
With  such  an  array  of  the  results  of  original  research,  we  are  led  to  believe 
that  the  scientific  side  of  pharmacy  is  not  falling  into  neglect.  It  is  certain 
that  there  is  as  much  necessity  for  research  work  as  ever  there  was,  especially 
in  the  line  of  establishing  standards  of  strength  and  purity  for  medicinal  pre- 
parations. If  the  energy  wasted  in  writing  long  articles  on  "Pharmaceutical 
Education — Degrees  and  Requirements,"  and  the  "Past,  Present  and  Future 
of  Pharmacy,"  were  turned  into  the  proper  channel,  and  the  time  lost  by  phar- 
maceutical bodies  in  listening  to  such  "stuff"  were  otherwise  occupied,  the 
cause  of  pharmacy  would  be  materially  advanced.  We  admit  that  those  relat- 
ing to  education  are  subjects  for  short  papers  and  discussions,  but  only  in  the 
briefest  manner.  Of  what  use,  however,  is  a  long  dissertation  on  the  "Past, 
Present  and  Future  of  Pharmacy  ?  "  Yet  we  believe  a  paper  with  a  title  some- 
thing like  that  was  awarded  some  sort  of  a  prize  before  a  pharmaceutical  body 
during  the  past  summer.  Of  the  past,  it  may  be  said,  let  it  be  past  ;  of  the 
present  we  know,  and  of  the  future  we  know  nothing,  and  volumes  of  theory 
about  improbable  possibilities  will  not  help  us  to  know  it  any  better.  More 
laboratory  facts  and  less  writing-table  theories  are  the  crying  necessities  of  the 
hour  in  pharmaceutical  science. 
At  a  recent  examination  of  the  State  Pharmacy  Board,  held  in  Philadelphia, 
85  applicants  presented  themselves  for  the  certificate  of  qualified  assistant,  and 
87  for  that  of  registered  pharmacist.  Sixteen  of  the  former  and  11  of  the 
latter  succeeded  in  passing  the  examination,  and  were  ordered  to  be  registered. 
At  Pittsburg,  52  applicants  presented  themselves  for  the  certificate  of  quali- 
fied assistant,  and  56  for  that  of  registered  pharmacist.  Eighteen  of  the 
former  and  9  of  the  latter  succeeded  in  passing  a  satisfactory  examination,  and 
were  directed  to  be  registered.  At  this  rate  the  State  will  not  be  overrun  with 
pharmacists  very  soon. 
The  next  examination  will  be  held  in  Philadelphia,  on  Saturday,  January  18,. 
1896. 
