Am.  Jour.  Pharm,  ) 
July  1,  1871.  J 
Solution  of  Santonine. 
321 
deprived  them  of  their  self-confidence  and  of  their  professional  honor ; 
jou  have  sacrificed  the  good-fellowship  of  your  brethren  to  your 
egotistical  designs,  aud  you  speculate  only  on  the  weakness  and  ig- 
norance of  the  sick,  on  the  suffering  of  life,  and  every  one  becomes 
without  compassion  a  victim  of  your  guile.  Oh  !  if  your  principles 
-were  realized  ;  if  in  the  civ^ilized  world  pharmacy  were  handed  over 
to  freedom  as  you  demand,  what  a  flood  of  specialities  !  what  inter- 
national rivalry  of  miraculous  remedies  w^ould  rush  down  upon  us  ! 
how  the  diploma  of  pharmacy  would  be  degraded  !  Yes,  I  do  not 
shrink  from  saying  so  ;  and  if  that  diploma  might  be  had  for  the 
trouble  of  picking  it  up,  where  is  the  man  of  honor  to  be  found  who 
woitld  stoop  to  drag  it  out  of  the  mire  into  which  it  has  fallen  ?  And 
as  to  the  millions  you  realize  by  your  specialities,  keep  them  for  your- 
selves ;  I  value  the  honor  of  my  country  higher  !" 
The  gist  of  the  petition  is  embodied  in  three  points,  viz.  : — 
1.  The  principle  of  free  trade  is  not  applicable  to  the  pharmaceu- 
tical business. 
2.  Free  trade  in  pharmacy  is  antagonistic  to  the  true  interests  of 
the  public,  and  must  ruin  the  profession,  hitherto  so  highly  esteemed. 
3.  The  present  system  of  licences  is  the  best  both  for  the  public 
^nd  for  the  proprietors  of  pharmacies. 
And,  finally,  the  petition  complains  that  the  Government  has  re- 
moved the  two  apothecaries  from  the  sanitary  council  of  the  empire 
at  a  time  when  in  Russia  two  members  of  the  Pharmaceutical  Society 
■of  St.  Petersburg  have  been  appointed  members  of  the  supreme  sani- 
tary council,  in  order  to  report  on  all  points  connected  with  their 
profession. — Pharm.  Journ.  and  Trans.  April,  29th  1871. 
SOLUTION  OF  SANTONINE. 
By  John  Harley,  M.  D.  F.  R.  C.  P.,  etc. 
The  insolubility  of  this  vermifuge  impairs  its  utility.  Cold  or  w^arm 
water  takes  up  the  merest  trace.  Chloroform,  absolute  alcohol,  the 
strongest  acetic  acid,  turpentine,  hot  olive  oil,  and  hot  glycerine,  are 
the  only  simple  fluids  that  dissolve  any  appreciable  quantity.  On 
cooling,  it  separates  from  the  oil  and  glycerine ;  and  the  addition  of 
water  to  the  other  solvents  produces  the  same  result. 
It  is  obvious,  therefore,  that  none  of  these  solvents  are  adapted  for 
the  use  of  Santonine  as  a  medicinal  agent.    A  wish  to  determine  the 
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