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Editorial. 
\m  Jour  Phartcu 
May,  1879. 
States.  In  our  opinion,  the  duties  of  the  State  Board  of"  Health  might  advantage- 
ously be  extended  to  ail  the  important  sanitary  interests  of  the  State,  as  .indicated  by 
the  author  in  a  note  appended  to  the  "draft."  In  such  an  event,  it  would  doubtless 
be  desirable  to  modify  the  formation  of  the  board  so  as  to  give  a  fair  representation 
to  those  whose  interests  might  naturally  fall  to  its  supervision. 
The  pamphlet  contains  also  a  copy  of  the  British  law  of  1875. 
The  introduction  of  the  metric  system,  we  believe,  is  merely  a  question  of  time, 
and  since  the  experiment  of  its  practical  introduction  into  the  United  States  Marine 
Hospital  Service  has  been  successfully  made,  there  seems  to  be  a  greater  incentive 
for  its  more  general  use  by  physicians  and  pharmacists.  The  rules  elaborated  by 
Prot.  Oldberg,  to  which  we  have  referred  on  a  previous  occasion  ("  Amer.  Jour.  Phar  ," 
1878,  p.  365),  are  so  simple  as  to  be  easily  comprehended  and  remembered,  and 
may  be  practically  used  without  difficulty  or  serious  inconvenience.  Several  medical 
journals  published  in  the  United  States  are  now  using  the  metric  system  to  the  entire 
exclusion  of  the  old  apothecaries'  weights  and  measures,  and  several  medical  associ- 
ations require  its  use  in  all  communications  presented  to  them.  For  the  introduc- 
tion of  the  system  into  medicine  at  the  present  time,  the  initiatory  steps  probably 
rest  with  the  medical  profession,  who  may  prescribe  in  the  metric  system  and  require 
the  prescriptions  to  be  thus  properly  compounded.  But  the  pharmacists  may  very 
materially  further  the  movement,  not  only  by  procuring  the  necessary  implements^ 
but  also  by  directing  the  attention  of  physicians  to  the  simplicity  of  the  system,  and 
by  practically  employing  it  in  all  those  officinal  preparations  in  which  it  may  be  used 
with  advantage. 
From  "metric  notes"  leceived  a  short  time  ago  we  learn  that,  among  others,  the 
following  propositions  have  recently  been  before  the  Medical  Society  of  the  County 
of  New  York; 
"Resolved,  That  the  metric  system  shall  henceforth  be  used  in  the  minutes  of 
this  Society,  and  in  all  the  papers  published  under  its  authority. 
"Resolved,  That  the  Medical  Society  of  the  County  of  New  York  request  the 
Medical  Boards  of  the  Hospitals  and  Dispensaries  to  adopt  the  Metric  System  in 
prescribing,  and  that  the  Faculties  of  the  Medical  Colleges  be  also  requested  to 
order  its  adoption  in  their  didactic  and  clinical  departments." 
The  society  invites  the  co-operation  of  kindred  societies  interested  in  the  move- 
ment, and  has  for  this  purpose  appointed  a  Committee  on  the  Metric  System,  con- 
sisting of  Drs.  E.  Seguin,  M.  D.  Mann  and  T.  A.  McBride,  to  whom  communica- 
tions may  be  addressed. 
We  would  also  invite  contributors  to  the  "Journal"  to  employ  the  metric  system 
in  formulas  and  other  communications  wherever  practicable. 
A  Call  For  Help. — The  following  letter  has  been  received  from  the  President  of 
the  Pharmaceutical  Society  in  Hungary  : 
The  dreadful  deluge  of  the  river  Theiss  has  destroyed  all  the  country  bordering 
its  shores  in  lower  Hungary,  with  Szegedin,  the  second  town  of  the  kingdom,  and 
