90 
EDITORIAL. 
Street  as  practical  druggist  and  pharmaceutist,  I  would  most  respectfully 
solicityour  patronage.  With  an  experience  of  ten  years  at  the  head  of  the 
prescription  department,  I  trust  by  the  strictest  care  and  diligence  to 
merit  your  favor. 
«  Feeling  a  desire  to  make  my  establishment  a  permanency,  and  owing 
to  the  great  competition  I  may  have  to  contend  with,  I  beg  leave  to  offer 
you  a  commission  of  ten  per  cent,  on  your  prescriptions,  payable  monthly. 
Sincerely  hoping  that  this  proposition  may  not  meet  with  your  disfavor, 
"  I  am,  very  respectfully, 
"  Your  obedient  servant, 
«  Philada.,  Nov.,  1866." 
This  is  not  the  first  time  we  have  seen  a  missive  of  this  character, 
though  it  but  rarely  happens  that  the  apothecary  has  so  mistaken  the 
general  temper  of  physicians  as  to  approach  them  in  this  palpable  form. 
In  another  instance  25  per  cent,  was  offered  as  the  inducement  to  the 
physician  to  part  with  his  self-respect.  On  the  contrary,  the  proposition 
sometimes  comes  from  the  other  direction,  and  it  is  the  apothecary  who  is 
applied  to  by  the  physician.  In  either  case  it  is  a  direct  temptation  to  the 
sin  of  covetousness, — urging  the  physician  to  prescribe  more  frequently  / 
and  expensively  than  he  otherwise  might  think  necessary,  and  urging  the 
apothecary  to  overcharge  the  patient,  that  he  may  retain  his  usual  profits. 
However  this  may  be,  it  is  all  wrong,  and  an  insult  either  way  to  honora- 
ble members  of  either  profession,  and  should  be  discountenanced  by  them 
both.  Let  the  writer  of  the  above  missive  take  the  beaten  path  to  success 
in  pharmacy  by  meriting  success  on  the  score  of  excellence  in  dispensing, 
both  as  regards  the  quality  of  his  drugs,  the  perfection  of  his  preparations, 
and  the  neatness  of  his  dispensing ;  and  with  a  reasonable  amount  of 
patience  and  enterprise,  he  will  much  sooner  succeed  than  by  perilling  his 
reputation  by  such  offers. 
Duplicating  Numbers. — It  has  become  necessary  to  advertise  our  sub- 
scribers that  the  mail  service  is  at  their  risk,  and  that  it  is  impossible  for 
us  to  make  up  all  the  losses  that  are  occasioned  by  irregularities  of  the 
Post  OfBce.  The  last  volume  for  1866  is  nearly  out  of  print,  as  a  complete 
volume,  from  this  cause, — remailing  numbers  not  received — and  we  wish 
it  distinctly  understood  that  after  carefully  addressing  and  mailing  this 
Journal  to  a  party,  our  responsibility  ends,  and  if  there  is  loss  it  must  be 
borne  by  the  subscriber.  This  will  lead  to  more  care  in  giving  addresses, 
and  cause  subscribers  to  look  to  the  Post  Office  for  redress.  Where  we 
are  really  in  fault  we  expect  to  be  responsible. 
Manual  of  Materia  Medica  and  Therapeutics.  Being  an  abridgement  of  the 
late  Dr.  Pereira's  Elements  of  Materia  Medica,  arranged  in  conformity 
with  the  British  Pharmacopoeia,  and  adapted  to  the  use  of  medical  practi- 
