EDITORIAL. 
879 
in  use,  whether  by  law  or  custom,  in  the  British  empire,  demands 
the  attention  of  the  Legislature  at  the  earliest  practical  time,  with  a  view 
to  the  establishment  of  some  convenient  uniform  decimal  system  through- 
out the  United  Kingdom."  Which  resolution  was  carried,  but  two 
speakers  being  in  the  negative.  One  of  these,  however,  was  Prof.  Airey, 
the  Astronomer  Royal,  who  spoke  in  favor  of  the  English  weights  and 
measures  as  more  useful  in  practice  from  their  ready  subdivision  by 
halving  and  quartering.  They  also  recommended  the  substitution  of 
metricvil  for  troy  weights,  it  having  been  recommended  to  abolish  the 
latter  by  the  Standard  Commissioners,  and  thus  make  an  entering  wedge 
to  their  general  introduction.  They  also  advocate  the  system  of  inter- 
national coinage,  based  on  gold  of  nine-tenths  purity,  with  a  decimal 
division. 
Prof.  Liebtg. — From  a  notice  in  Cosmos,  June  4th,  this  savant  has 
been  seriously  ill  from  a  dangerous  abcess  in  the  neck,  requiring  a  surgical 
operation.  The  paper  considered  his  recovery  doubtful ;  but  as  nothing 
has  yet  been  announced,  we  presume  this  eminent  and  useful  laborer  in 
science  has  recovered. 
Pepsine. — The  following  query,  received  sometime  ago,  was  accidently 
overlooked : 
Philadelphia,  M  mo.  \Wi,  1870. 
Dear  Sir  : — Through  the  pages  of  the  Journal  of  Pharmacy  at  its  next 
issue  will  you  oblige  a  subscriber  by  replying  to  this  query  :  In  the 
preparation  of  "pepsine,"  by  the  method  of  Boudanlt,  is  the  product  in 
any  way  injured  if  the  solution,  after  treatment  with  sulphuretted  hydro- 
gen, is  filtered  through  carbo  animalis,  a  step  which  seems  necessary  to 
free  it  from  the  sulphuret  of  lead  prior  to  evaporation? 
A  Subscriber. 
The  treatment  of  pepsine  in  solution  with  a  moderate  quantity  of  animal 
charcoal  will  cause  no  material  loss,  and  will  remove  its  odor.  As  the 
object  is  deodorization  and  not  decoloration,  the  smallest  quantity  suit- 
able to  remove  the  odor  will  be  best. 
Pharmacy  in  New  Jersey. — Our  New  Jersey  friends  are  in  earnest  in 
pushing  the  organization  of  their  body.  In  our  May  number  a  notice 
was  given  of  the  initial  meeting  at  Newark,  Feb.  24th.  The  Secretary, 
Mr.  Charles  B.  Smith,  in  a  letter  dated  May  27th,  sends  several  copies 
of  the  proposed  law,  as  adopted  at  the  meeting  held  in  Trenton  on  the 
24th  of  March,  to  which  he  alludes  in  the  following  extract: 
"  At  the  meeting  held  in  Trenton,  March  24th,  1870,  one  member  from 
each  County  in  the  State  was  added  to  the  Legislative  Committee. 
"  The  Chairman  of  that  Committee  was  directed  to  have  printed  five 
hundred  copies  of  the  law  as  amended,  and  to  place  one  copy  in  the 
hand  of  every  druggist  in  the  State,  with  the  request  to  return  them  with 
their  written  approval  or  objection  any  time  before  July  1st.    Upon  those 
