A*NoT™',i873EM'}   Reviews  and  Bibliographical  Notices.  527 
(Editorial  Department. 
Stamping  of  Proprietary  Medicines. — In  the  October  number  we  had  stitched 
a  copy  of  a  letter  of  Internal  Revenue  Commissioner  J.  W.  Douglass,  dated 
•Sept.  9th,  wherein  that  officer  gives  the  latest  decisions  in  regard  to  the  stamp- 
ing of  medicines  as  provided  by  what  is  known  as  the  Internal  Revenue  Law, 
a  law,  by  the  way,  which  has  been  a  book  sealed  with  seven  seals  to  very  many 
officers  previous  to  this  last  effusion  of  authoritative  interpretation,  which,  in 
our  humble  opinion,  is  not  in  harmony  with  the  spirit  of  the  law,  or  with  its 
letter  either.  We  have  no  space  for  any  extended  remarks  on  this  subject, 
which  has  been  an  annoyance  to  many  pharmacists,  in  various  parts  of  the 
country,  for  several  years  past;  but  we  appreciate  the  endeavor  of  Supervisor 
A.  P.  Tutton  to  remove  at  once  all  doubt  concerning  this  law  and  the  duties  of 
the  pharmacists  under  it.  We  cannot  believe  for  a  moment  that  the  rulings  of 
the  Commissioner,  the  highest  officer  under  this  law,  will  be  sustained  if  the 
question  should  be  fairly  placed  before  the  legal  tribunals.  The  action  of  the 
Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy  on  this  question  will  be  found  upon  another 
page,  and- we  are  pleased  to  be  able  to  state  now  that,  as  far  as  heard  from,  the 
pharmaceutical  associations  of  other  localities  coincide  with  these  views.  The 
surest  way  to  create  opposition  to  a  law  is,  we  believe,  in  making  its  applica- 
tion odious ;  and  in  this  the  Commissioner  has  succeeded  so  perfectly,  that  the 
public  would  feel  the  oppression  keenly  if  the  matter  could  be  properly  placed 
before  it.    We  intend  to  refer  to  it  again  in  a  future  number. 
Pharmaceuticax,  Journals. — We  have  just  received  the  fourth  number  of 
the  22d  volume  of  Wittstein's  Vierteljahres-Schrift,  and  regret  to  state  that 
its  publication  will  be  discontinued.  Dr.  Wittstein  is  so  well  known  to  our 
readers  as  a  veteran  laborer  in  the  cause  of  pharmaceutical  education  and  pro- 
gress, that  this  discontinuance  will  be  regarded  with  regret,  and  with  the  hope 
that  his  pen  may  not  cease  writing  altogether  in  the  service  to  which  it  has 
been  devoted  for  nearly  four  decades. 
Another  change  is  contemplated  by  the  German  Apothecaries'  Society.  The 
action  taken  at  its  last  meeting  at  Cologne  looks  very  much  as  if  the  fusion  of 
the  "Archiv"  and  "  Neues  Jahrbuch"  into  one  journal  was  contemplated. 
Such  a  change  would  concentrate  so  much  talent  into  one  publication  as  to 
insure  its  literary  success  beyond  a  doubt. 
REVIEWS  AND  BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTICES. 
Chemistry,  inorganic  and  organic:  with  Experiments.  By  Charles  Loudon  Bloxam,  Pro- 
fessor of  Chemistry  in  King's  College,  London,  &c.  With  295  Illustrations.  From 
the  second  and  revised  English  edition.  Philadelphia:  Henry  C.  Lea.  18*73.  8vo. 
pp.  700.    Price,  cloth,  $4.50;  leather,  $5.50. 
