EDITORIAL. 
479 
ceutical  body.  It  was  the  design  of  the  founders  of  this  Association,  that 
it  should  gradually  grow  in  numbers  and  influence  until  its  action  would 
be  received  as  a  fair  exponent  of  the  sentiments  and  wishes  of  the  best 
educated  portion  of  the  profession,  in  reference  to  the  reforms  which  might 
be  needed.  Hence  it  has  been  the  constant  aim  of  those  having  the  man- 
agement of  its  affairs  to  enlist  the  interest  of  pharmaceutists  in  every  sec- 
tion of  the  union  in  its  favor,  so  that  their  support  and  services  may  be 
available  in  the  furtherance  of  its  objects.  Let  us  give  an  example,  sup- 
posing the  Association  has  extended  its  membership  into  every  State.  The 
time  is  approaching  when  the  next  decennial  revision  of  the  Pharmacopoeia 
is  to  occur.  The  bodies  represented  in  the  Pharmacopoeia  convention  are 
requested  to  prepare  and  forward  such  notes  of  revision  of  that  work  as 
they  deem  proper.  One  of  the  chief  merits  of  a  United  States  Pharmacopoeia 
is,  that  it  should  embody  a  list  of  materia  medica  and  medicinal  prepara- 
tions suited  to  the  wants  of  every  section  of  a  country  that  embraces  all 
climates  from  tropical  to  arctic.  Now  we  contend  that  intelligent  pharma- 
ceutists, in  the  pursuit  of  their  practice  in  the  service  of  physicians,  get  a 
better  idea  of  the  wants  of  the  medical  profession  than  physicians  them- 
selves, as  they  are  called  on  to  supply  those  wants.  Hence,  if  the  Associa- 
tion should  bring  to  bear  its  influence  on  this  subject,  it  is  presumed  that  a 
body  of  information  could  be  collected  that  would  very  materially  aid  the 
Committee  of  Revision.  It  is  in  this  way  that  the  Pharmaceutical  Society  of 
Great  Britain  has  been  successful  in  promoting  reforms.  Its  members  ex- 
tend throughout  England  and  Scotland,  and  it  is  at  this  time  employing  its 
influence  in  aid  of  that  noble  work,  the  fusion  of  the  three  British  Pharma- 
copoeias into  one  great  work,  to  represent  the  British  Empire.  Again  we 
say  to  the  brethren,  attend  the  meeting  ;  and  to  those  who  cannot  come,  yet 
who  feel  in  harmony  with  the  Association,  we  say  join  it  in  membership  in 
the  manner  explained  in  the  President's  notice  at  page  477,  and  by  thus 
countenancing  it  give  their  indirect  aid. 
Poisoning — Toxicology. — The  crime  of  poisoning  seems  to  be  on  the  in- 
crease in  England  since  the  developements  in  the  case  of  Palmer,  which 
has  become  so  widely  known  by  his  trial  and  execution.  The  attention  of 
English  pharmaceutists  has  been  much  attracted  towards  the  chemical 
means  of  detecting  poisons,  and  the  journals  teem  with  essays  on  reagents 
and  antidotes.  In  view  of  the  evils  which  result  from  the  newspaper  pub- 
lication of  the  details  of  these  trials  being  read  and  pondered  on  by  evil- 
disposed  and  morbid-minded  persons,  who  before  may  have  had  the  half- 
formed  idea  of  murder  or  suicide  resting  with  them,  druggists  and  apothe- 
caries should  be  doubly  careful  in  dispensing  poisons  of  all  kinds,  and  es- 
pecially those  potent  agents  like  strychnia  which  are  so  easily  abused.  In 
the  absence  of  legal  enactments,  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  their  necessity  will 
be  superceded  by  a  self-imposed  carefulness  in  the  vending  of  this  class  of 
