ON  Campbell's  process  for  preparing  fluid  extracts.  29 
All  this  certainly  secures  unparalleled  safety  and  an  excellent 
corps  of  apothecaries,  but  the  total  absence  of  all  competition 
is  damaging  to  the  practical  science  itself.  Why,  there  is  hardly 
any  progress  at  all  in  pharmacy,  and  however  book-learned, 
however  keen  chemists  the  druggists  of  old  Sweden  are — they 
are  slow  in  many  respects.  I  see,  for  instance,  in  the  new  edition 
of  their  Pharmacopoeia,  and  hear  from  my  cousin,  who  has  lately 
been  engaged  in  one  of  the  largest  drug  stores  there,  that  they 
know  nothing  as  yet  about  percolation,  fluid  extracts,  the 
modern  resinoids,  our  elegant  American  elixirs  and  glyceroles, 
granules  and  sugar-coated  pills. 
On  the  other  hand,  they  have  now  adopted  the  French  gramme 
weight ;  they  know  by  heart  the  equivalent  of  an  element  to  a 
fraction,  and  can  make  pills  as  round  as  the  very  best  shot  in 
double  quick  time. 
It  is  unreasonable  to  expect  more  as  long  as  there  is  no  com- 
petition. Why  not  allow  every  druggist  who  has  ^'served  his  time" 
and  got  his  diploma  to  put  up  his  shingle  and  make  nauseous 
pills  ?  I  am  confident  that  the  disagreeableness  of  their  pills 
would  vanish  soon  enough,  and  by  and  by  they  would  even  have 
them  sugar-coated.  This  will  never  be  accomplished  under  the 
present  system.  In  my  humble  opinion,  the  system  in  Sweden 
and  the  United  States  are  the  extremes.  Grant  no  licenses  to 
unqualified  persons,  but  do  grant  them  to  all  who  have  thoroughly 
studied  their  profession,  and  I  think  we  will  be  better  off  in 
every  respect. 
WasJdngton,  D.  C,  Nov,,  1869. 
ON  MR.  CAMPBELL'S  PROCESS  FOR  PREPARING  FLUID 
EXTRACTS. 
By  James  T.  Kino, 
The  changes  in  the  process  of  preparing  fluid  extracts,  sug- 
gested by  Mr.  Samuel  Campbell  in  the  Sept.  No.  of  the  Journal, 
appeared  well  worth  a  trial,  as  the  objects  aimed  to  be  reached 
are  important,  viz.,  avoiding  the  use  of  heat,  and  saving  alcohol. 
But  it  appeared  to  me  that  the  process  was  not  applicable  to 
all  drugs,  or  rather,  that  some  of  the  drugs  specified  in  the 
