(EMtortal  Department. 
American  Pharmaceutical  Association.— Our  readers  will  find  at  page 
481  an  account  of  th'  last  meeting  of  the  Association.  We  regret  that  so 
little  zeal  was  manifested  by  the  brethren  in  not  making  it  convenient  to  attend 
the  sittings.  To  remedy  this  apathy,  it  will  be  necessary  to  annually  ap- 
point a  committee  to  report  on  the  best  means  of  applying  pharmaceutical 
knowledge  to  the  production  of  wealth,  which,  if  duly  announced,  we  doubt 
not,  would  bring  a  numerous  attendance,  at  leas'  of  listeners.  The  strangers 
present  owe  their  New  York  friends  many  thanks  for  the  very  elegant  sup- 
per provided  on  Wednesday  evening,  the  12th  of  September,  at  the  Colla- 
more  House,  which  was  honored  by  several  prominent  members  of  the 
medical  profession,  and  enlivened  by  Dr.  Smith  of  the  press.  The  official 
Proceedings  of  the  Association  will  soon  be  published  by  the  Chairman  of 
the  Executive  Committee,  George  D.  Coggeshall,  Esq.;  at  New  York. 
The  Valley  of  New  Lebanon  (N.  Y.)  as  a  source  of  Medicinal 
plants. — A  few  days  previous  to  the  meeting  of  the  American  Pharma- 
ceutical Association,  having  determined  to  take  a  little  relaxation,  we  di- 
rected our  course  up  the  Hudson,  towards  the  verdant  hills  of  Columbia 
county  in  the  Empire  State,  where,  beautifully  located  in  the  centre  of  a 
rich  and  productive  valley,  lies  the  village  of  New  Lebanon.  All  the  way 
from  Hudson  the  surface  is  deeply  indented  with  vallies,  and  the  interven- 
ing hills  gradually  increase  in  volume  as  you  proceed  eastward,  until  they 
join  those  of  the  county  of  Berkshire,  in  western  Massachusetts.  The 
Lebanon  valley,  at  the  point  occupied  by  the  village,  has  a  somewhat  tri- 
angular shape,  the  eastern  angle  being  the  location  of  the  far  famed 
"  Lebanon  Springs,"  whilst  on  the  western  exposure  of  the  eastern  range 
of  hills,  on  a  natural  terrace,  rise  the  plain  and  substantial  buildings  of  the 
people  called  Shakers,  which  completely  overlook  the  village  at  the  height 
of  two  hundred  feet  above  it,  di&tant  a  mile.  The  soil  of  this  region,  al- 
though very  stony  above  the  alluvial,  has  great  strength,  as  is  evident  by 
the  culture  of  the  hill  sides,  often  to  the  very  top,  and  we  remember  stand- 
ing in  the  midst  of  a  rye  field,  800  feet  above  the  village,  and  viewing  the 
blue  ranges  of  the  distant  Kaatskiil ;  whilst  in  the  east,  the  Green  mountains 
of  Vermont  and  Massachusetts  stretch  from  north  to  south.  The  chief  at- 
traction to  this  district  for  the  general  traveller  is  "  the  Springs/"  but  the 
pharmaceutist  naturally  inquires  for  the  sources  of  those  numerous  packages 
of  roots,  herbs,  and  extracts  which  annually  flow  in  commerce  over  the 
country,  duly  labelled  **  New  Lebanon." 
It  was  our  good  fortune  to  find  Mr.  H.  A.  Tilden  at  his  laboratory,*  now 
known  all  over  our  country  as  the  source  of  the  best  medicinal  extracts  pre- 
pared in  vacuo.  His  business  of  preparing  extracts,  has  grown  so  con- 
siderably that,  at  this  time,  more  than  twenty  thousand  pounds  of  medicinal 
extracts  are  annually  manufactured,  besides  a  much  larger  amount  of  ex- 
*  See  plate  at  page  576. 
