Am.  jour.  Pharm.  )       Laws  and  Pharmaceutical  Licensure.  539 
August,  1921.  > 
Adsorption  by  the  cells  of  the  drug  plays  a  variable  role  in  the 
exhaustion  of  drugs,  certain  active  principles  being  retained  in  the 
marc  with  great  tenacity.  ~The  effectiveness  with  which  active  prin- 
ciples are  retained  by  reason  of  adsorption  depends  more  upon 
the  solvent  used  than  upon  the  length  of  time  during  which  the 
menstruum  is  in  contact  with  the  drug  beyond  that  required  for 
ordinary  slow  percolation. 
Maceration  of  the  drug  for  a  period  of  twenty-four  hours  after 
the  liquid  begins  to  drop  from  the  percolator  and  before  percolation 
is  allowed  to  proceed  is  unnecessary,  and  results  in  loss  of  time,  in 
the  manufacture  of  tinctures. 
Biologic  tests  were  made  to  determine  the  activity  of  the  several 
fractions  of  percolate. 
THE  STATUS  OF  PREREQUISITE  LAWS  AND  PHARMA- 
CEUTICAL LICENSURE.* 
By  J.  W.  England. 
The  enactment  of  the  prerequisite  law  of  the  State  of  New 
York  effective  as  of  January  1,  1905,  and  of  the  State  of  Pennsyl- 
vania effective  as  of  January  1,  1906,  affecting  the  two  most  popu- 
lous States  of  the  Union,  marks  an  epoch  in  the  history  of 
pharmaceutical  education  and  legislation  in  this  country.  The  sur- 
prising feature  of  this  legislation,  however,  is  that  the  importance  of 
systematized  pharmaceutical  education  as  a  prerequisite  for  exam- 
ination to  practice  was  not  legally  recognized  for  nearly  one  hundred 
years  after  the  establishment  of  pharmaceutical  education  in  this 
country  by  the  Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy  in  February  23, 
1 82 1. 
H.  C.  Christensen,  Secretary  of  the  National  Association  of 
Boards  of  Pharmacy,  writes  me  (May  9,  192 1)  as  follows: 
"After  the  enactment  of  the  prerequisite  laws  in  New  York 
and  Pennsylvania,  there  followed  a  long  period  of  inactivity  along 
this  line,  or  possibly  more  correctly  a  period  of  propaganda  without 
apparent  results  until  191 5,  when  the  North  Dakota  and  State  of 
Washington  Boards  of  Pharmacy  adopted  prerequisite  requirements 
*Read  at  annual  meeting  of  Pennsylvania  Pharmaceutical  Association, 
June,  1921. 
