330 
Editorial. 
(  Am.  Jour.  Phakm. 
t    July  1,.  187:;. 
previous:  and  as  in  this  case,  it  will,  undoubtedly,  in  September  next  draw  to 
its  place  of  meeting  many  of  its  present  members,  and  a  large  number  of  phar- 
macists who  have  hitherto  not  been  identified  with  the  Association.  Beauti- 
fully situated  on  the  banks  of  the  James  river,  Richmond  and  its  surroundings 
present  many  attractive  sceneries,  and  a  historical  importance  reaching  far  back 
to  the  Colonial  times.  A  trip  to  some  of  the  historical  spots  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Richmond  has  been  suggested,  and  a'ter  the  final  adjournment  a  visit  is  con- 
templated to  Mount  Yernon,  the  home  and  last  resting-place  of  Washington. 
The  routes  proposed  for  the  Eastern  and  Western  members  will  be  announced 
in  the  Secretary's  circular,  which  will  soon  be  issued. 
Applications  for  membership  and  for  space  at  the  exhibition  of  pharmaceu- 
tical objects,  should  be  addressed  to  the  Permanent  Secretary  without  delay. 
Variability  of  Pharmaceutical  Preparations. — ,£  A  writer  in  'The  Drug- 
gist' reports  the  result  of  examinations  of  eighteen  different  fluid  extracts  of 
belladonna,  made  by  different  manufacturers.  They  ranged  from  410  to  80; 
or.  in  other  words,  the  weakest  preparation  was  but  one  fifth  the  strength  of 
the  most  active.  Such  facts  are  startling  to  practitioners.  Doubtless  similar 
uncertainty  prevails,  though  perhaps  not  to  such  an  extent,  in  the  whole  range, 
of  pharmacal  preparations.  A  remedy  for  the  evil  is  imperatively  demanded. 
The  responsibility  and  remedy  rests  with  pharmacists.  The  rapid  progress  of 
pharmaceutical  science  within  a  lew  years  past,  and  the  multiplication  of  asso- 
ciations and  schools  for  its  culture,  ought  to  have  debarred  the  possibility  of 
results  so  embarrassing  and  disreputable.  We  are  assured  that  fluid  extracts; 
are  the  most  certain  and  uniform  of  medicinal  preparations,  and  they  are  largely 
prescribed  by  physicians  under  this  guarantee.  We  turn  the  subject  over  into 
the  hands  of  our  pharmacists  for  that  attention  and  reform  which  are  alike 
demanded  by  the  magnitude  of  the  subject  in  its  relation  to  life  and  disease, 
and  by  their  own  reputation  and  their  obligations  to  the  community." — Chicago 
Medical  Examiner,  May  1. 
We  copy  the  above  paragraph  in  the  hope  that  ihe  subject  may  attract  the. 
attention  of  our  medical  contemporaries  to  a  far  greater  extent  than  it  has. 
hitherto  done.  We  know  nothing  of  the  correctness  of'the  examination  quoted 
above,  but  we  must  remark  here  that  the  amouut  of  solid  matter  contained  in 
liquid  pharmaceutical  preparations  is  never  a  sure  criterion  by  which  their 
strength  can  be  judged.  Most  of  them  cannot  be  assayed,  because  their  medi- 
cinally active  principles  are  either  unknown  or  cannot  be  fully  isolated  with  the 
same  exactness  as  inorganic  compouuds.  Hence  all  such  assertions  must  be 
taken  with  a  considerable  degree  of  skepticism,  unless  the  method  of  analysis 
is  clearly  described. 
The  variability  of  the  pharmaceutical  preparations  as  they  are  found  in  com- 
merce,  is  nothing  new  to  the  pharmacial  profession,  whose  voice  has  frequently 
V»een  raised  against  a  practice  that  has  gradually  been  leading  to  this  uncer- 
tainty. We  refer  to  the  prescribing  by  physicians  of  preparations  of  certain* 
manufacturers.  The  pharmaceutical  journals,  the  colleges  of  pharmacy,  local 
pharmaceutical  societies,  and  the  National  Association  have  frequently  pro- 
tested against  it,  but  the  medical  journals  have  rarely  noticed  such  protests* 
