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EDITORIAL. 
usual mode of distillation, and may be preserved any length of time 
in well-corked bottles." 
u Anti-Fever Pills. — Prescription thereof, viz. : Sulph. quinine, 
three ounces; rad. rhei pulveris, three ounces; piperinal pural, one 
ounce; acidum sulphuricum dilutum, (quantum sufficit,) formam 
mapsam. Make the above recipe into pills of three and a half grains 
each." 
We have copied these beautiful excerpts literally ; they certainly 
constitute a genus in the family of prescriptions. Yet it is to such 
productions of the human brain, that educated, scientific, skilful and 
high-principled druggists and apothecaries are lending themselves and 
assisting to reap a pecuniary profit. 
While patentees are not afraid or too simple to conceal their igno- 
rance, more cunning nostrum mongers, in comparative security from 
disclosure, continue their depredations on the public, and with swel- 
ling names and lists of certificates pander to the credulity of the com- 
munity. We know an instance where a certificate; purporting to be 
written by a clergyman, was fabricated, in a dry goods store in this 
city by the young gentlemen clerks as a literary relaxation. 
At the present time, when the community are in a state of nervous 
apprehension with regard to one of the most fatal maladies known to 
mankind, we are sorry to see the avidity with which the dose-swal- 
lowing propensity is taken advantage of by some, from whose standing 
and tone in society we should expect better things. To relieve symp- 
toms of incipient disease is one thing, but to administer medicine to 
every one who fancies himself sick is another, as wicked as it is per- 
nicious. We know of a case where a gentleman from the West has 
absolutely injured his stomach by the quantity of anti-cholera medi- 
cines taken. One remedy we have met with purports to be the 
"Bombay Cholera Mixture," another, the "Western." Surely ex- 
tremes meet. 
We have little hope that nostrum selling will be interrupted, but 
the sanction of the government ought not to be given to medicines as 
crude and incongruous as those which are patented. We understand 
that Dr. Edwards has retired from the scene of his labors, where he 
has done much for the good of humanity in exposing abuses and stay- 
ing imposition. May another leader, as zealous and talented, be found 
to succeed him. Had he continued to hold his place in the national 
councils, he would no doubt have been as successful in carrying the 
bill for the suppression of Patent Medicines accompanying the report, 
as he was in the case of the bill to prevent the introduction of Adul- 
terated Drugs. 
