82 
EDITORIAL. 
mentaries  in  this,  an  interest  arising  from  the  real  importance  of  having 
our  Pharmacopoeia  processes  so  manageable  that  they  can  be  performed 
easily  within  the  shop  laboratory.  We  have  not  yet  satisfied  ourself  of 
the  actual  necessity  and  value  of  making  glycerin  enter  so  generally  into 
these  preparations,  nor  do  we  yet  appreciate  whether  its  presence  may  be 
viewed  as  so  much  sugar,  or  whether  it  has  certain  physiological  proper- 
ties when  administered  that  render  its  presence  sometimes  inappropriate. 
This  is  a  point  that  medical  observers  would  do  well  to  determine. 
Whilst  on  this  subject  we  will  take  occasion  to  say  that  there  are  quite 
a  number  of  our  subscribers  whose  practice  conveys  the  impression  that 
printers  and  paper  makers  work  gratuitously.  There  are  some  who  owe 
us  for  eight  and  ten  years  of  subscriptions,  and  yet  expect  to  receive  this 
number  as  though  of  right.  This  situation,  it  may  be  said,  is  our  fault  in 
sending.  This  may  be  true,  but  the  course  of  our  College  in  this,  as  in 
most  others  of  its  functions,  has  been  rather  to  extend  knowledge  than  to 
make  money,  depending  on  the  just  appreciation  of  its  efforts  in  the 
long  run  to  benefit  Pharmacy.  If  some  of  this  class  of  our  patrons  fail 
to  receive  this  volume,  they  must  attribute  it  to  an  earnest  effort  to 
reduce  our  expenses,  rather  than  to  a  disposition  to  deprive  them  of  their 
customary  reading  matter,  and  that,  appreciating  our  sincerity,  they  will 
manfully  pay  up  old  scores,  and  bring  smiles  to  the  visage  of  our 
treasurer. 
We  will  also  take  occasion  to  ask  the  attention  of  our  subscribers  to 
the  mail  service  of  their  localities.  Where  several  subscribers  are  at  one 
place,  our  mailing  clerk  always,  after  writing  the  names  on  the  covers, 
ties  them  together  in  paper  directed  to  the  postmaster.  It  frequently 
happens,  under  these  circumstances,  that,  while  nearly  all  receive  the 
Journal,  one  will  write  of  its  failure,  when,  as  a  matter  of  course,  the 
missing  journal  must  have  reached  the  post  office.  It  is  therefore  the 
duty  of  subscribers  to  promptly  investigate  these  failures  to  receive, 
because  when  we  carefully  mail  them  our  responsibility  ends.  When 
subscribers  move  their  residence  from  one  post  district  to  another  jthey 
often  forget  to  notify  us,  and  thus  occasion  loss  and  trouble.  In  sending 
their  address,  each  subscriber  in  small  towns  should  specify  his  County 
as  well  as  State,  to  give  additional  safety. 
We  owe  an  apology  to  our  subscribers  for  the  late  appearance  of  this 
number,  due  partly  from  the  necessity  of  waiting  for  the  illustration 
first  page,  which  has  not  yet  come  to  hand  on  Jan.  5th.  Quite  a  number 
of  excellent  papers  in  our  exchanges  are  waiting  for  notice  or  reprinting 
in  our  pages,  and  it  is  hoped  that  we  will  be  able  in  the  March  number  to 
do  them  justice. 
Joint  Action  of  Medical  and  Pharmaceutical  Committees  in  rela- 
tion TO  A  Drug  Law. — In  March  last  the  County  Medical  Society  appoint- 
ed a  committee,  consisting  of  Doctors  Gross,  Burns,  Stetler,  Gebhard  and 
Hamilton,  to  take  some  action  in  reference  to  the  necessity  of  a  law  against 
