Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
June,  1913. 
Progress  in  Pharmacy. 
265 
the  reason  apparently  being  that  these  houses  have  established  such 
catalogues  for  their  own  use,  the  possession  of  which  gives  them 
great  advantages  over  the  smaller  houses  in  cases  of  patent  litiga- 
tion, etc.  Ostwald  says,  however,  that  such  an  institute  will  be 
founded  '  in  Belgium,  or  in  France,  or,  what  is  most  probable,  in 
America.' 
"  Will  America  prove  itself  worthy  of  this  expression  of  con- 
fidence ?  "  and  the  editorial  goes  on  to  say  that  it  depends  altogether 
on  the  strength  of  the  scientific  as  compared  to  the  commercial 
spirit. 
Enlightened  Stand  of  a'  Mail-Order  House. — The  Journal 
of  the  American  Medical  Association  in  a  recent  number  comments 
favorably  on  the  action  of  a  large  western  mail-order  house  in  dis- 
continuing the  sale  of  "patent  medicines."  In  their  new  catalogue 
the  company  tells  its  patrons  why  it  no  longer  lists  secret  prepara- 
tions.   Explanatory  of  its  attitude  in  the  matter  it  says  in  part : 
"  Many  of  our  customers  will  be  surprised  and  possibly  some 
of  them  disappointed  to  find  that  this  catalogue  no  longer  lists 
the  various  patent  medicines  we  have  carried  in  the  past.  Our 
decision  to  discontinue  the  sale  of  patent  medicines  was  made  after 
careful  study  of  the  question  from  all  sides  and  is  based  on  our 
policy  of  handling  only  dependable  merchandise — merchandise  that 
we  believe  will  give  the  service  our  customers  have  a  right  to  ex- 
pect. We  have  come  to  believe  that  patent  medicines  do<  not  con- 
form to  this  standard ;  in  fact,  we  are  confident  that  those  of  our 
customers  who  have  investigated  the  matter  thoroughly  will  agree 
with  us  that,  considered  in  all  its  phases,  the  patent  medicine  busi- 
ness is  a  public  evil. 
"  We  are  not  prepared  to  take  the  extreme  position  that  no* 
medicines  of  any  kind,  regardless  of  how  simple  or  in  what  manner 
advertised,  should  be  offered  direct  to  the  public.  However,  even 
such  a  state  of  things  might  easily  be  better  than  the  present  situa- 
tion, in  which  we  find  valueless  and  even  dangerous  medicines 
offered  to  the  public  through  the  medium  of  advertising  that  is 
extravagant,  misleading  and  deceptive-— advertising  calculated  to 
deceive  the  well  into  the  belief  that  they  are  sick  and  to  induce  the 
sick  to  pin  their  faith  to  ineffectual  means  for  recovery." 
Euphorbia  Pilulifera. — In  a  communication  to  the  Pharma- 
maceutical  Society  of  Great  Britain,  Dr.  F.  B.  Power  and  H. 
Browning  give  the  result  of  a  complete  chemical  examination. 
Among  the  various  constituents  of  this  drug  which  have  now  been 
