184 
EDITORIAL. 
to  those  seeking  hints  as  to  what  has  been  done  for  pharmacy  during  the- 
previous  year,  and  where  to  find  it.  We  have  no  space  to  enlarge  on  it, 
but  must  approve  of  the  fullness  given  to  it,  which  enables  the  reader 
to  form,  in  many  instances,  a  fair  idea  of  the  papers  alluded  to.  We 
consider  it  highly  creditable  to  the  ability  and  perseverance  of  Dr.  Hofl- 
mann,  and  we  think  his  name  might  well  have  been  appended  to  it  by  the 
Editor,  as  is  usual  with  such  reports,  as  the  modesty  of  the  author  no- 
where makes  his  name  appear. 
The  Report  on  Specimens,  by  IVlr.  T.  Whitfield,  is  an  enumeration  of 
the  specimens  on  exhibition.  The  Committee  does  not  attempt  an 
analysis  of  the  merit  of  the  exhibition,  being  prevented  by  the  brevity  of 
the  period  at  their  command  for  examination,  and  they  suggest  that  in 
future  occasions  of  the  kind,  the  Association  should  devote  the  time  of 
one  session  solely  to  the  personal  examination  of  the  articles  exhibited, 
to  prevent  absence  from  the  meeting  for  that  purpose  as  well  as  to  do 
justice  to  the  exhibitors,  who  go  to  great  trouble  and  expense  to  make 
their  contributions. 
The  Report  on  the  Pharmacopoeia,  by  Dr.  E.  R.  Squibb,  occupies 
fifty  printed  pages.  It  is  an  individual  report,  for  which  the  reporter 
only  is  responsible,  and  has  been  a  work  of  much  labor,  based  on  the 
constantly  recorded  observations  of  the  author  during  the  past  ten  years. 
The  remarks  on  the  preliminary  notices  embrace  many  useful  hints  for 
the  coming  revision.  The  metrical  system  of  weights  is  advocated,  as  is 
the  abandonment  of  measures  of  capacity.  The  manipulation  of  perco- 
lation has  to  be  so  modified  to  meet  the  physical  condition  of  drugs  in 
relation  to  solvents  that  the  reporter  doubts  the  propriety  of  directions 
for  universal  application,  and  that  each  preparation  should  be  specially 
explained  in  this  regard.  In  commenting  on  the  Materia  Medica  the 
report  makes  the  most  sweeping  recommendations  of  dismissal,  which 
include  57  articles  in  the  primary  list  and  70  in  the  secondary.  We  con- 
sider the  reporter  occupies  the  wrong  standpoint  to  judge  of  what  should 
constitute  the  Materia  Medica  list  for  a  population  and  a  medical  pro- 
fession embracing  so  many  nationalities  ;  not  to  speak  of  that  numerous 
body  called  country  practitioners,  who  often  set  great  value  on  indige- 
nous remedies.  That  which  will  suit  the  circumscribed  condition  of  the 
army  and  navy  is  wholly  unsuited  to  meet  the  daily  wants  of  a  pharmacy 
whose  prescriptions  take  a  wide  range,  We  therefore  think  the  Asso- 
ciation very  properly  disclaimed  an  approval  of  this  part  of  the  report. 
The  reporter's  comments  on  the  processes  of  the  Pharmacopseia  pos- 
sess many  valuable  hints,  the  result  of  careful  study,  and  which  deserve 
careful  notice  by  the  forthcoming  Revisional  Committee,  yet  there  are 
not  a  few  suggestions  that  will  not  be  approved  of  by  many. 
Mr.  Faber's  report  of  the  doings  of  the  International  Pharmaceutical 
Congress,  at  Vienna,  is  full  and  interesting.  In  regard  to  the  Special 
and  Volunteer  Reports,  we  believe  they  are  neither  so  numerous  nor  so 
