Am.  .Jour.  Pharm.") 
Jan.,  1885.  J 
Editorials. 
53 
secrecy  in  medicines  was  given  by  the  Secretary  at  tlie  meeting  at  Niagara 
Falls,  and  is  published  in  the  Proceedings  for  1882,  pages  641  and  642. 
To  the  Editor  of  the  American  Journal  of  Pharmacy  : 
The  December  number  of  the  "  American  Journal  of  Pharmacy"  con- 
tains a  communication  from  Mr.  Robert  Shoemaker,  which  in  my  opinion 
does  great  injustice  to  the  membership  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical 
Association.  Mr.  Shoemaker  makes  the  statement  that  at  the  St.  Louis 
meeting  of  the  National  Wholesale  Druggists'  Association  prominent  mem- 
bers of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association  were  in  attendance  in 
the  interest  of  nostrums,  and  the  course  pursued  by  them  appeared  as  an 
endorsement  of  the  importance  and  efficiency  of  this  class  of  pretentious 
cure-alls  and  quack  medicines.  He  further  says  :  "  I  cannot  help  feeling  that 
the  worthy  gentlemen  who  participated  in  the  debates  on  this  subject  forgot 
for  the  moment  their  high  calling  as  members  of  a  truly  honorable  profes- 
sion, and  lost  dignity  in  asking  the  convention  to  endorse  as  legitimate  the 
very  articles  against  which  they  should  set  their  faces." 
The  writer  confesses  his  inability  to  explain  how  the  delegation  of  the 
American  Pharmaceutical  Association  could  be  confounded  with  the  offi- 
cials of  the  National  Retail  Druggists'  Association  who  were  present  at  this 
meeting,  and  were  so  prominent  in  the  debates  and  so  active  in  urging 
upon  the  wholesalers  the  importance  and  necessity  of  the  adoption  of  the 
so-Tcalled  "Campion"  or  nostrum  plan.  It  certainly  was  no  fault  of  these 
gentlemen  if  those  present  were  not  impressed  with  the  importance  of  their 
representations ;  for  they  claimed  as  their  constituency  the  retail  druggists 
of  this  hemisphere,  or  more  correctly  speaking,  the  space  bounded  on  the 
east  by  the  Atlantic  and  on  the  west  by  the  Pacific  ocean,  to  the  north  by 
Hudson  Bay  and  to  the  south  by  the  Gulfx)f  Mexico ;  or  in  other  words,  if 
the  space  is  not  "figuratively"  speaking  empty,  it  means  representing 
from  30,000  to  50,000  druggists. 
When  the  delegation  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association  pre- 
sented their  credentials,  the  chairman,  Mr.  Eno  Sander,  conveyed  in  a 
very  happy  manner  fraternal  greetings,  and  in  a  few  brief  remarks  stated 
the  objects  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association,  the  work  under- 
taken and  performed  in  the  past,  the  work  laid  out  for  the  present  and 
future,  coupling  with  this  the  hope  that  the  National  Wholesale  Druggists' 
Association  would  be  found  in  the  ranks,  marching  side  by  side,  and  shoul- 
der to  shoulder  with  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Asssciation  in  the  noble 
struggle  of  promoting  the  progress  and  elevating  the  profession  of  Pharmacy 
in  this  country. 
Subsequently,  when  the  report  on  adulteration  of  drugs,  and  the  recom- 
mendations from  the  committee  as  to  what  active  measures  be  at  once  taken 
to  expose  and  bring  to  punishment  the  guilty,  was  read  and  adopted,  the 
writer  asked  the  privilege  of  making  a  few  remarks  ;  this  being  granted, 
he,  in  behalf  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association,  thanked  the 
National  Wholesale  Druggists'  Association,  for  the  adoption  of  the  report 
and  the  seeming  very  practical  recommendations  for  correcting  the  exist- 
ing evil,  with  which  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association  had  been 
battling  for  the  last  thirty-three  years,  and  it  was  most  gratifying  to  learn 
that  henceforth  the  two  associations  would  be  joined  hand-in-hand  in  this 
labor  of  making  marketable  only  pure  and  honest  drugs. 
The  writer  was  present  at  all  the  sessions  of  the  St.  Louis  meeting,  and 
heard  all  the  debates,  and  he  does  positively  state  that  at  no  time  were  there 
any  remarks  made  by  the  representatives  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical 
Association,  either  pro  or  con.  on  the  subject  of  nosti^ums  under  considera- 
or  debate  by  the  Association.  The  delegation  was  very  careful  of  not  having 
the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association  connected  with  this  question  in 
any  manner  whatever ;  and  when  a  manufacturer  of  this  class  of  goods, 
