560      Advances  in  Materia  Medica  and  Pharmacy.  {Am 
December,  1915. 
It  hardly  seems  likely  that  a  country  of  the  resources  like  ours 
will  continue  to  remain  dependent  on  other  countries  for  such  a 
necessity  of  life,  for  such  indeed  is  potash!  This  country  possesses 
resources  that  are  bound  to  be  developed.  Witness  how  the  depen- 
dence on  Russia  for  a  tasteless,  odorless,  and  colorless  liquid 
petrolatum  was  overcome  under  the  stimulus  of  necessity. 
Government  experts  are  quite  insistent  that  the  seaweed  along 
the  Pacific  coast  will  prove  to  be  a  very  prolific  source  of  potash.  It 
is  also  quite  possible  that  a  practical  and  workable  process  for  obtain- 
ing potash  from  feldspar  will  be  developed.  This  should  prove  an 
illimitable  source  of  supply,  as  feldspar  is  abundant  in  this  country. 
E.  Meyer,  in  1857,  recommended  a  process  which  was  essentially 
the  ignition  of  10  parts  of  feldspar  (aluminum  and  potassium  sili- 
cate) with  14  to  18  parts  of  lime,  boiling  the  mass  with  water  under 
pressure  and  evaporating  the  solution,  at  the  same  time  conducting 
the  products  of  combustion  over  the  liquid  in  order  to  convert  the 
caustic  potassa  into  carbonate  and  to  precipitate  the  alumina  which 
was  in  solution.  It  is  quite  within  the  bounds  of  possibility  that 
some  modification  of  this  process  would  result  in  a  product  that 
would  be  commercially  profitable. 
The  lack  of  phenol  in  this  country  and  the  scarcity  of  those 
synthetics  of  which  it  is  a  source  are  also  matters  of  grave  impor- 
tance. The  matter  of  dyestuffs  has  also  been  a  subject  of  much 
discussion  in  both  the  scientific  and  lay  journals,  to  say  nothing  of 
the  daily  papers.  Judging  from  the  tone  of  what  has  been  said  at 
meetings  held  in  various  sections  of  the  country,  and  what  has  been 
printed  in  the  press,  the  consensus  of  opinion  seems  to  be  that  gov- 
ernmental cooperation  will  be  necessary  if  the  coal-tar  industry,  with 
its  many  side  lines,  is  to  be  put  on  a  firm  business  basis. 
When  the  Sixty-fourth  Congress  meets  on  Monday,  December  6, 
it  will  have  many  important  subjects  to  consider,  not  the  least  among 
them  being  national  legislation  which  will  protect  in  every  honor- 
able way  the  manufacturing  and  business  interests  of  the  country, 
and  at  the  same  time  protect  and  promote  the  welfare  of  the  country 
as  a  whole. 
It  may  be  of  interest  to  pharmacists  to  know  that  not  only  are 
some  of  the  better  class  of  newspapers  showing  a  growing  disinclina- 
tion to  advertise  patent  medicines,  but  they  are  also  beginning  to 
discuss  the  proprietary  evil.      The  New  York  Sun  reported  an 
