Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Jan. 1876. 
Editorial. 
4i 
Mr.  Thos.  Greenish  read  an  interesting  paper  on  Pharmacy  in  Portugal,  in  which, 
among  other  valuable  information,  it  is  stated  that  Portuguese  physicians  frequently 
prescribe  foreign  nostrums,  which  are  largely  imported  from  France,  America  and 
England. 
British  Pharmaceutical  Conference — At  the  meetings  of  the  Executive 
Committee,  held  in  November  and  December,  £75  was  granted,  in  sums  ranging 
from  £5  to  £20,  to  eight  gentlemen,  to  aid  them  in  undertaking  researches  on  spe- 
cial subjects,  the  results  to  be  communicated  to  the  next  annual  meeting,  at  Glas- 
gow, September  5th  and  6th. 
The  Secretaries  announced  that  the  "  Year-book  "  for  1875  was  m  type,  that  it 
would  extend  to  six  huudred  and  fifty  pages,  that  it  would  be  published  on  or  about 
the  nlh  of  December,  and  that  a  copy  would  be  sent,  post-free,  to  every  member 
who  had  paid  his  annual  subscription. 
EDITORIAL  DEPARTMENT. 
The  Forty-eighth  Volume  of  this  Journal  begins  with  the  present  number, 
and  fully  half  a  century  has  passed  by  since  the  first  number  of  what  has  subsequently 
been  called  the  preliminary  volume  was  issued,  in  1825,  its  regular  and  uninter- 
rupted publication,  however,  dating  from  the  year  1829,  since  which  time  a  volume 
has  been  issued  every  year.  From  a  quarterly  the  Journal  became  a  bi-monthly, 
and,  finally,  a  monthly  publication,  and  its  usefulness  has  made  it  a  welcome  visitor 
to  many  who  are  interested  in  pharmacy,  here  and  abroad.  For  this  we  are,  in 
a  great  measure,  indebted  to  our  contributors,  who  communicated  the  results  of 
their  observations  or  researches,  and  we  are  pleased  that  the  present  volume  opens 
so  propitiously,  with  a  large  amount  of  original  matter  from  different  contributors. 
It  is  true  that  the  pharmacist,  actively  engaged  in  business,  has  little  leisure  for 
literary  labor,  but  it  is  equally  true  that,  "  where  there  is  a  will,  there  is  also  a  way." 
The  occasions  for  observations  are  numerous,  even  while  following  the  daily  routine  of 
business,  and  if  these  were  noted  down  and  published,  they  would  add  to  the  gen-1 
eral  stock  of  knowledge.  Amongst  the  contributors  to  our  last  volume,  we  had  the 
pleasure  of  welcoming  several  for  the  first  time,  and  we  take  this  occasion  to  invite 
our  readers  generally  to  join  the  list  of  those  who,  for  a  longer  or  shorter  period, 
have  contributed  to  these  pages,  and  to  record  therein  their  practical  observations, 
well  as  their  scientific  researches. 
Postal  Matters. — Our  special  thanks  are  due  to  our  friends  in  New  York,  who 
kindly  informed  us  that  the  post-office  in  that  city  had  demanded  the  payment  of 
double  letter  postage  on  the  December  number,  on  account  of  the  "  Special  notice 
to  Subscribers  "  stitched  into  it,  ruling  the  same  to  be  an  enclosure.  The  matter 
was  at  once  referred,  through  the  Postmaster  of  Philadelphia,  to  the  Post-office  De- 
partment in  Washington,  from  which,  under  date  of  December  14th,  1875,  tne 
following  reply  was  received  : 
