Am.  Jour.  Pharm,  1 
September,  1920.  j 
Editorial. 
619 
of  the  Union,  or  an  indication  of  origin  in  such  country,  shall  be 
prohibited  entry  in  all  the  other  contracting  States,  excluded  from 
transit  and  from  storage,  and  may  be  subject  to  seizure  followed,  if 
necessary,  by  a  suit  in  court." 
**Art.  8.  The  ownership  of  a  commercial  name  shall  be  guar- 
anteed in  all  the  States  of  the  Union  without  distinction  of  nationality 
and  without  obligation  of  deposit,  whether  or  not  it  forms  part  of  a 
mark  of  manufacture  or  of  commerce." 
* 'Articles  claimed  to  be  infringements  may  be  seized  in  the 
inclosure  of  the  expositions." 
''The  expense  to  which  this  institution  shall  give  rise  shall  be  borne 
by  all  the  Governments  of  the  contracting  States." 
The  attempts  to  create  a  system  of  perpetual  monopoly  of  in- 
ventions  and  alleged  inventions  by  commercial  control  of  their 
currently  used  names,  and  the  establishing  of  an  international 
method  for  obtaining  proprietary  rights  never  intended  by  the  patent 
and  trade-mark  laws  either  in  this  country  or  in  any  other  civilized 
country  are  still  going  on. 
CONCI.US10NS. 
Proper  discrimination  is  not  exercised  by  the  Patent  Office  in 
regard  to  patenting  inventions  and  registering  trade-marks.  Patents 
are  allowed  which  should  never  have  been  granted.  Names  are 
registered  as  trade-marks  with  the  intention  of  using  them  after- 
ward as  titles  for  the  purposes  of  monopoly.  During  the  Great 
World  War  it  developed  that  more  than  1 7  millions  of  dollars  worth 
of  patents  for  synthetic  chemicals  had  been  obtained  by  fraud. 
Inquiry  reveals  inadequate  facilities  and  dearth  of  skilled  help  at  the 
Patent  Office  through  insufficient  appropriations. 
Are  we  to  sit  by  indifferently  and  permit  a  group  of  patent 
lawyers,  "proprietary"  manufacturers  and  advertising  firms  to 
establish  an  international  union  for  the  commercial  control  of  the 
drug  business  throughout  the  world? 
F.  E.  Stewart,  Ph.M.,  M.D. 
VISIT  TO  A  BElvLADONNA  PLANTATION. 
It  was  the  privilege  of  the  editor  and  several  friends  to  visit  the 
Belladonna  fields  of  Messrs.  Johnson  and  Johnson  at  New  Brunswick, 
N.  J.,  and  to  observe  on  a  July  day  many  acres  of  these  plants  under 
experienced  cultivation.    At  this  time,  they  were  at  their  b(?st  and 
