286 
EDITORIAL. 
mising,  that  though  often  thought  and  spoken  of  by  ourselves,  they  receive 
additional  force  from  the  action  of  a  committee  ox  the  American  Pharma- 
ceutical Association,  quoted  on  a  subsequent  page.  [See  vol  xxvi,  page 
393,  Amer.  Jour.  Pharm.] 
Let  a  committee  be  appointed  by  the  American  Medical  Association,  a 
part  of  whom  should  be  pharmaceutists,  or  better,  perhaps,  let  the  com- 
mittee act  in  unison  with  one  appointed  by  the  American  Pharmaceutical 
Association,  whose  duty  it  shall  be  to  draw  up  a  set  of  formulae  for  reme- 
dies, calculated  to  meet  the  ordinary  demands  of  domestic  practice.  These 
formulae  should  be  adopted  by  the  American  Medical  and  Pharmaceutical 
Associations,  and  published  for  the  benefit  of  all  concerned — not  excepting 
the  consumer,  when  he  desires  to  know  their  ingredients — and  they  should 
be  as  uniformly  adhered  to  as  any  of  our  common  officinal  preparations. 
The  medicines  should  be  put  up  in  uniform  style,  and  issued  under  the  sanc- 
tion of  the  American  Medical  and  Pharmaceutical  Associations.  In  this 
manner  the  popular  demand  for  domestic  remedies  will  be  supplied  with 
medicines  whose  action  can  be  relied  on,  and  which  can  be  honestly  re- 
commended in  ordinary  cases,  by  the  apothecary,  and  even  by  the  general 
practitioner.  No  countenance  should  be  given  by  the  apothecary  to  any 
of  the  numerous  quack  preparations  with  which  their  shops  are  now  gorged, 
and  the  physician  who  should  soil  his  fingers  with  them,  should,  of  course, 
lose  caste  immediately. 
The  apothecary  would  reap  advantage  from  such  an  arrangement,  as  he 
would  prepare  the  remedies  from  the  crude  drugs,  and  receive  all  the  profits 
on  them,  instead  of  being  obliged  to  divide  them  with  another  party,  who 
receives  the  lion's  share. 
We  believe  that  the  plan  suggested  above,  if  properly  carried  out,  would 
do  more  towards  the  suppression  of  quackery,  than  any  legislative  action 
that  can  be  brought  to  bear  upon  it.  There  are  so  many  who  are  largely 
interested  in  the  support  of  quackery,  who,  with  their  sympathizers,  would 
be  so  restive  under  any  legal  inabilities,  that  if  Jaws  were  passed  bearing 
upon  that  evil,  their  operation  and  stability  would  be  uncertain,  and  their 
execution  most  likely  unsatisfactory." 
We  like  the  tone  of  Dr.  Butler's  remarks,  as  they  indicate  a  willingness 
to  adopt  a  practicable  remedy  for  a  great  and  crying  evil.  If  such  a  series 
of  these  formulas  could  be  agreed  upon  as  would  apply  to  those  ordinary 
cases  as  are  usually  treated  in  families  without  calling  in  the  physician, 
and  for  want  of  which  they  often  resort  to  quackery,  and  which  the  apothe- 
cary could  recommend  with  safety  and  propriety,  they  would  go  far  to  dis- 
place from  use  a  large  portion  of  the  quackeries  of  the  day — a  certain 
class  of  nostrums,  addressed  to  the  marvellous,  and  promising  miracles, 
perhaps  excepted. 
Massachusetts  College  of  Pharmacy. — We  extract  the  following  from 
the  Boston  Medical  and  Surgical  Journal,  viz  . — 
11  The  annual  meeting  of  this  institution  was  held  at  the  rooms  in  Phillips 
Place,  on  Monday,  March  5th.  The  officers  elected  for  the  ensuing  year 
are,  Daniel  Henchman,  President ;  S.  M.  Colcord  and  J.  T.  Brown,  Vice- 
Presidents  ;  Thomas  Hollis,  Corresponding  Secretary  ;  Henry  W.  Lincoln., 
Secretary  ;  T.  Larkin  Turner,  Auditor.  The  Trustees  elected  were  Henry 
D.  Fowle,  Charles  H.  Atwood,  George  W.  Parmenter,  Augustus  P.  Melzar, 
John  Buck,  James  S.  Melvin,  Robert  R.Kent,  Albert  G.  Wiibor. 
The  doings  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  for  the  past  year  were  read  and  ap- 
