234 
Editorial. 
f  Am.  Joub.  Pharm. 
1     May  1,  1871. 
The  fate  of  legislation  for  the  regulation  of  the  practice  of  Pharmacy 
during  the  last  winter  has  not  been  such  as  the  friends  of  the  elevation  of  Phar- 
macy were  justified  in  expecting.  In  all  the  States  but  one  where  bills  were 
introduced  the  measures  were  defeated,  partly  in  consequence  of  local  patriot- 
ism, manifested  by  the  endeavor  to  except  certain  blessed  localities  from  the 
provisions  of  an  act  demanding  proof  of  proficiency  from  the  dealers  in  medi- 
cines and  poisons  ;  partly  because  some  physicians  succeeded  in  convincing 
wise  legislators  that  by  virtue  of  their  diploma  conferring  the  title  of  M.  D., 
they  were  capable  of  doing  anything  and  everything  in  the  remotest  degree 
related  to  physic  and  medicine  and  surgery;  but  partly,  also,  because  it  was 
extremely  difficult  to  reconcile  the  wants  of  oftentimes  very  thinly  populated 
districts  of  a  large  State  with  the  necessities  of  populous  cities.  In  a  city  of 
New  Jersey,  out  of  45  regular  physicians,  42  signed  the  petition  in  favor  of  the 
Pharmacy  act.  As  members  of  an  honorable  profession,  they  showed  their 
good  will  and  lent  their  hearty  support  to  the  elevation  of  a  kindred  profession  ; 
not  one  of  them  signed  a  remonstrance,  which  received  the  signatures  of  a  few 
druggists,  all  the  eclectics  and  clairvoyant  physicians  in  that  city. 
In  Michigan,  where  the  Pharmacy  act  was  defeated,  a  bill  passed  the  House 
to  establish  a  chair  of  Homoeopathy  in  the  University.  We  admire  the  consist- 
ency of  some  of  the  members  who  voted  for  endowing  a  chair  teaching  how  to 
cure  disease  with  a  small  dose  of  nothing  ;  they  could  hardly  be  expected  to  be 
in  favor  of  allowing  dead  bodies  being  cut  up  with  the  view  of  studying  anatomy. 
It  is  a  barbarous  practice,  and  niierly  unnecessary/  ;  for  anatomy  can  be  studied 
from  engravings,  wax  models,  &c.  For  the  sake  of  humanity,  we  hope  that 
these  wise  legislators,  when  needing  the  aid  of  a  surgeon,  may  be  fortunate 
enough  to  secure  the  services  of  one  who  has  had  occasion  to  study  anatomy 
from  other  sources  than  models  and  engravings,  and  to  have  their  prescriptions 
compounded  by  apothecaries  who  have  been  educated  to  their  duties. 
A  BILL  FOR  LICENSING  DRUGGISTS  has  been  passed  by  the  Legislature  of  New 
York.  As  first  passed,  it  had  reference  only  to  clerks,  but  before  being  signed 
by  the  Governor  was  recalled  and  altered  so  as  to  provide  for  the  examination 
of  the  principals  as  well  as  clerks  before  a  board  appointed  by  the  Mayor  of 
New  York  city.  The  existence  of  pharmaceutical  colleges  in  this  country  and 
in  Europe  is  persistently  ignored.  We  have  not  received  a  copy  of  the  bill  as 
finally  passed,  and  may  have  a  few  remarks  to  offer  in  our  next  issue.  For  the 
present  we  shall  content  ourselves  to  state  that  the  examining  board  is  to  be 
composed  of  two  physicians,  two  pharmaceutists,  and  two  chemists,  and  to  lay 
before  our  readers  the  following  well-timed  suggestions  from  the  Medical  Ga- 
zette of  New  York,  some  of  which  are  applicable  also  to  other  localities  outside 
of  the  commercial  metropolis  of  this  continent  : 
As  His  Honor  the  Mayor  will  doubtless  be  overwhelmed  with  applications 
for  appointments,  we  venture  to  offer  for  his  guidance  a  hint  that  the  propri- 
etors of  flourishing  establishments,  wherein  the  dispensing  of  prescriptions  is 
a  sort  of  side  issue  from  the  main  traffic  in  patent  medicines,  cosmetics  and 
"  fancy  articles"  generally,  are  by  no  means  the  most  eligible  pharmaceutists  in 
our  midst.    There  are  in  New  York  several  apothecaries  who  hold  both  phar- 
