VARIA—EDITORIAL.THE JOURNAL.—With the present number, the first volume of the Journal is completed. In a pecuniary point of view its success has fully equalled the expectations of its originators; it is no longer an experiment, but is established on a firm basis, and will be continued with increased energy and a larger experience in the art of journalism. We have tried to keep faithfully in view the objects with which the Journal was commenced; while we have endeavored to present to our readers whatever of general interest or importance has been published abroad, we have the gratification to believe that some contributions to the general stock have first appeared in our pages which would otherwise never have seen the light. But those who confine the benefit of a journal solely to the information it imparts have but a limited view of its usefulness; an account of what is done abroad excites but little emulation compared with far humbler efforts made by our own friends, and in our own neighborhood, and the encouragement and promotion of such efforts is a large good, quite independent of the results that may be attained. The mere attempt to write on a subject like scientific pharmacy leads to a close scanning of the foundation of our opinions, to renewed experiments to ascertain their justness, to more enlightened views of the connection and bearing of our science. In this way we hope to see the good done by the{381}Journal greatly increased. The contributors to its pages have hitherto been but few in number, but its columns are open to all. They are controlled by no clique, are subservient to no views of merely personal advancement, and we will gladly, welcome communications from all quarters, judging of them only by their merit and usefulness.THE DRUG INSPECTION LAW.We had intended to have made some remarks on the debate which took place in the Convention regarding the admission of certain articles, under the law for the inspection of imported drugs, which, though possessing medicinal properties are, we believe, merely used for the purpose of adulterating other and better articles, but willingly give place to the subjoined communication from Dr. Guthrie, which, on the whole, advocates views similar to our own. With regard to the Carthagena barks, as they are termed, we confess to a desire for further information. Those barks vary very much from each other. Though not rich in quinia, some of them contain a large per centage of alkaloids, which are closely allied to it. We hope that the committee to whom the subject was referred by the Convention will not only cause proper analyses to be made of the commercial varieties of these barks, but will have experiments instituted regarding their comparative therapeutic value. The Hospitals of our country afford abundant cases of malarious disease, and, we have no doubt, the physicians attached to them would be ready to institute trials which would afford a satisfactory solution to this important question.GEO.D.GOGGESHALL,My Dear Sir,—The proceedings of the National Pharmaceutical Convention have just come to hand, and been perused by me, with no ordinary degree of interest.You have known somewhat of my anxiety concerning these preliminary and forming stages of an Association of this character, and will readily believe that I have awaited the results of the late Convention, from which, most unfortunately for myself, I was compelled to be absent, with great solicitude. That solicitude has been relieved, and in its stead I have the assurance that a good foundation to a National structure has been laid, towards which hope points and expectation looks with joyous anticipations of future good.I may be permitted to congratulate you upon the successful labors of the convention, and more especially upon the fact that you have avoided any untenable false ground both in the convention and organization of the Association.That old stumbling block of “all drugs good of their kind,” in reference to our Drug Law, I see made its appearance again, but this time from a quarter I{382}little expected. But it had, notwithstanding its new paternity and eminent godfathership, only, so far as I can see, the same lame, diffuse and weak conclusions to back it.I was the more surprised at seeing the resolution in the form offered as coming from my friend Dr. Stewart, of Baltimore, because I had considered him as one who held entirely opposite opinions, and from this fact, that in a communication made to me in January last, as special agent of the Treasury Department, charged with the examination of the practical workings of the Drug Law, he says, “I have inspected several hundred thousand dollars worth of one drug which requires some particular notice, as I understand your views and mine correspond with regard to it, and you have succeeded in arranging a uniform system of examination at the different ports.The prominent principles upon which its value is based vary from about one to four per cent. The commercial article of the best varieties is graduated by the quantity of valuable element above referred to, but with regard to the inferior kinds this is not the case, as I have found upon repeated analyses that what are called bastard varieties (which are not used for extracting the valuable principles above referred to)sell athigher prices in proportion to their resemblance to theofficinal kinds. Even in cases where they contain no valuable medicinal constituents they are invoiced at 3 to 4 times the price of the other varieties on board the same vessel containing 3 per cent. Now if our object in this law is to discourage the introduction of those articles that are used for the purpose of adulterating medicines, it is manifest that the true interest of all will be served by admitting those only of the bastard varieties that areequalto the inferior officinal varieties, particularly as they happen to be at a lower cost and are very abundant.” This is Dr. Stewart, Jan. 9, 1852. The whole of his report to me, a very interesting and able document, I intend publishing, and have delayed it for the purpose of accompanying it with some other matter of the same nature, not yet in hand.If I understand him correctly, he took entirely opposite ground in the Convention, and I certainly shall look with no ordinary interest for some explanation of a change so entire, in one whose position and well earned reputation give him importance and great influence in the final settlement of this matter. What new light has shone upon his path? What new facts has he to offer? I sayfinalsettlement, because I see by the appointment of a committee to whom the matter was referred, that the whole subject is but laid over. Although the convention negatived the resolution, as it did asimilarone a year ago in New York, they seem disposed to endow the question with as many lives as are fabled of the cat.Notwithstanding all the reasoning of the author of the resolution, backed by the eminent professor, and aided by other reasons, thick no doubt as blackberries, you practical men who buy and sell these articles, were not convinced and never will be. They may cry out for “tooth powder,” until the demand for dentrifice shall quadruple, and tell us of the legitimate use of Carthagena or Maracaibo barks; (what is its legitimate use?) all in vain, for it is too well{383}known that the main use of the article is to adulterate the genuine barks. Why does the Drug examiner at Baltimore, Dr. Stewart, say that the “bastard varietiessell at higherprices in proportion to theirresemblance to the officinal kinds?” Why this demand for such as resemble the genuine, but to supply it to the buyers of Peruvian bark for the genuine and officinal. There can be no other conclusion. If more proof is wanting I take the remark of the gentleman from New-York, that the “house he was connected with sold large quantities in powder, and the parties purchasing did so knowing its origin.” No one could doubt this statement, at least as to the quantity annually purchased, who will go through half-a-dozen drug stores in any of the country villages or small towns any where in our country from Maine to Louisiana.He will have offered prime, best quality cinchona bark for 40 to 100 cents almost any where, and in one half the cases the venders believe they are selling what they offer, for they bought it for that. Is this not so, or is it all bought for “tooth powder?” One half the druggists who go to our large cities, buy “pale yellow” and red bark, and never think to enquire for the inferior barks, and once drive these last from our seaboard cities, and we shall have done with them.You are aware that I have had some opportunity of becoming acquainted with the drug trade of our country, and I assure you that throughout its length and breadth there is more worthless Peruvian bark sold and consumed by far than of the genuine, mostly, I hope through ignorance, but many times knowingly on the part of the dealer.The same that has been said of these false barks, may be said of English rhubarb; when it is not sold for and in the place of Turkey, it is used to make powdered Turkey out of. But the resolution does not stop short at these two articles, as the discussion seemed to. There is “false jalap” undoubtedly good of its kind, but unfortunately for the buyer the kind is good for nothing, although it makes extract of jalap, that in looks cannot be told from the genuine.There is also Egyptian opium, and a false Sarsaparilla and many other important drugs, that should have received the attention of the friends of this resolution, all of which, I beg to assure them, are undoubtedly good of their kind.But I have written more than I designed by far, as the subject grows upon my hands, though I regard it a very important one, and vitally so to the drug law which lies at the very foundation of all beneficial results to grow out of this association, and the position of the association as to the whole subject is equally important, for if we unfortunately commit ourselves to a wrong principle in the start, and especially upon this standard of purity as applicable to our Drug examiners, which is now regarded as a test question by the community at large, we lose all hold upon their confidence, and with it all hope of effecting any good either to ourselves as a profession or to the community in general.My chief object in addressing you this communication (intended for the New York Journal of Pharmacy, if you choose so to use it) is to record my experience as differing in toto from those of Dr. Stewart and Prof. Carson, and to elicit a full discussion of the whole matter. Let us have light! light! light enough to{384}settle this question, especially about the barks, for they are the source of this whole contention after all. There must be data enough to be had, upon which to form an opinion, and a correct one as to the medicinal virtues of Maracaibo, and Carthagena barks, as well as of English rhubarb, false jalap, Egyptian opium etc., etc.I shall be perfectly satisfied if the labors of this committee result in fixing a definite standard of strength, or amount of alkaloids required to be found in barks before consumed for medicine, and therefore admissible under the act, but satisfied at nothing short of this, for till that is done there will never be any uniformity in the action of the law. I had designed to make some remarks upon the requirements of the law and its needed emendation which I must defer to more leisure.Yours,etc.,C. B. GUTHRIE.Memphis, Tenn., November 2, 1852.ADISCOURSEONTHETIMES,CHARACTERANDWRITINGSOFHIPPOCRATES,READBEFORETHETRUSTEES,FACULTYANDMEDICALCLASSOFTHECOLLEGEOFPHYSICIANSANDSURGEONS,ATTHEOPENINGOFTHETERM,1852,BYELISHABARTLETT,M. D.,PROFESSOROFMATERIAMEDICA,ANDMEDICALJURISPRUDENCE.Published by the Class.Introductory lectures are generally very common-place affairs. Custom has prescribed that every year the different medical schools shall be opened with them; and custom, too, has prescribed for them a certain limited range of topics. Year after year, in a hundred places, the same round is gone over, and the same good advice is listened to, and neglected. Dr. Bartlett has broken through all this. He has chosen for the subject of his discourse the Character and Writings of the Father of Medicine, and he has illustrated them well and thoroughly. This is not the place for a detailed notice of the lecture. Yet we cannot but call attention to the playful humour, the kindly and genial spirit which set off and enliven its details, and which, breathing from the whole air and features of the man, render him one of the most agreeable lecturers to whom we have ever listened.EXCHANGES.—Hitherto the exchanges of this journal have not been conducted with proper regularity. It has neither been transmitted punctually to other journals, nor have they been received regularly in return. For the future this will be corrected; the journal will be forwarded immediately on its publication; and we hope our contemporaries will observe a like regularity with us.
THE JOURNAL.—With the present number, the first volume of the Journal is completed. In a pecuniary point of view its success has fully equalled the expectations of its originators; it is no longer an experiment, but is established on a firm basis, and will be continued with increased energy and a larger experience in the art of journalism. We have tried to keep faithfully in view the objects with which the Journal was commenced; while we have endeavored to present to our readers whatever of general interest or importance has been published abroad, we have the gratification to believe that some contributions to the general stock have first appeared in our pages which would otherwise never have seen the light. But those who confine the benefit of a journal solely to the information it imparts have but a limited view of its usefulness; an account of what is done abroad excites but little emulation compared with far humbler efforts made by our own friends, and in our own neighborhood, and the encouragement and promotion of such efforts is a large good, quite independent of the results that may be attained. The mere attempt to write on a subject like scientific pharmacy leads to a close scanning of the foundation of our opinions, to renewed experiments to ascertain their justness, to more enlightened views of the connection and bearing of our science. In this way we hope to see the good done by the{381}Journal greatly increased. The contributors to its pages have hitherto been but few in number, but its columns are open to all. They are controlled by no clique, are subservient to no views of merely personal advancement, and we will gladly, welcome communications from all quarters, judging of them only by their merit and usefulness.
THE JOURNAL.—With the present number, the first volume of the Journal is completed. In a pecuniary point of view its success has fully equalled the expectations of its originators; it is no longer an experiment, but is established on a firm basis, and will be continued with increased energy and a larger experience in the art of journalism. We have tried to keep faithfully in view the objects with which the Journal was commenced; while we have endeavored to present to our readers whatever of general interest or importance has been published abroad, we have the gratification to believe that some contributions to the general stock have first appeared in our pages which would otherwise never have seen the light. But those who confine the benefit of a journal solely to the information it imparts have but a limited view of its usefulness; an account of what is done abroad excites but little emulation compared with far humbler efforts made by our own friends, and in our own neighborhood, and the encouragement and promotion of such efforts is a large good, quite independent of the results that may be attained. The mere attempt to write on a subject like scientific pharmacy leads to a close scanning of the foundation of our opinions, to renewed experiments to ascertain their justness, to more enlightened views of the connection and bearing of our science. In this way we hope to see the good done by the{381}Journal greatly increased. The contributors to its pages have hitherto been but few in number, but its columns are open to all. They are controlled by no clique, are subservient to no views of merely personal advancement, and we will gladly, welcome communications from all quarters, judging of them only by their merit and usefulness.
THE DRUG INSPECTION LAW.We had intended to have made some remarks on the debate which took place in the Convention regarding the admission of certain articles, under the law for the inspection of imported drugs, which, though possessing medicinal properties are, we believe, merely used for the purpose of adulterating other and better articles, but willingly give place to the subjoined communication from Dr. Guthrie, which, on the whole, advocates views similar to our own. With regard to the Carthagena barks, as they are termed, we confess to a desire for further information. Those barks vary very much from each other. Though not rich in quinia, some of them contain a large per centage of alkaloids, which are closely allied to it. We hope that the committee to whom the subject was referred by the Convention will not only cause proper analyses to be made of the commercial varieties of these barks, but will have experiments instituted regarding their comparative therapeutic value. The Hospitals of our country afford abundant cases of malarious disease, and, we have no doubt, the physicians attached to them would be ready to institute trials which would afford a satisfactory solution to this important question.
We had intended to have made some remarks on the debate which took place in the Convention regarding the admission of certain articles, under the law for the inspection of imported drugs, which, though possessing medicinal properties are, we believe, merely used for the purpose of adulterating other and better articles, but willingly give place to the subjoined communication from Dr. Guthrie, which, on the whole, advocates views similar to our own. With regard to the Carthagena barks, as they are termed, we confess to a desire for further information. Those barks vary very much from each other. Though not rich in quinia, some of them contain a large per centage of alkaloids, which are closely allied to it. We hope that the committee to whom the subject was referred by the Convention will not only cause proper analyses to be made of the commercial varieties of these barks, but will have experiments instituted regarding their comparative therapeutic value. The Hospitals of our country afford abundant cases of malarious disease, and, we have no doubt, the physicians attached to them would be ready to institute trials which would afford a satisfactory solution to this important question.
GEO.D.GOGGESHALL,My Dear Sir,—The proceedings of the National Pharmaceutical Convention have just come to hand, and been perused by me, with no ordinary degree of interest.You have known somewhat of my anxiety concerning these preliminary and forming stages of an Association of this character, and will readily believe that I have awaited the results of the late Convention, from which, most unfortunately for myself, I was compelled to be absent, with great solicitude. That solicitude has been relieved, and in its stead I have the assurance that a good foundation to a National structure has been laid, towards which hope points and expectation looks with joyous anticipations of future good.I may be permitted to congratulate you upon the successful labors of the convention, and more especially upon the fact that you have avoided any untenable false ground both in the convention and organization of the Association.That old stumbling block of “all drugs good of their kind,” in reference to our Drug Law, I see made its appearance again, but this time from a quarter I{382}little expected. But it had, notwithstanding its new paternity and eminent godfathership, only, so far as I can see, the same lame, diffuse and weak conclusions to back it.I was the more surprised at seeing the resolution in the form offered as coming from my friend Dr. Stewart, of Baltimore, because I had considered him as one who held entirely opposite opinions, and from this fact, that in a communication made to me in January last, as special agent of the Treasury Department, charged with the examination of the practical workings of the Drug Law, he says, “I have inspected several hundred thousand dollars worth of one drug which requires some particular notice, as I understand your views and mine correspond with regard to it, and you have succeeded in arranging a uniform system of examination at the different ports.The prominent principles upon which its value is based vary from about one to four per cent. The commercial article of the best varieties is graduated by the quantity of valuable element above referred to, but with regard to the inferior kinds this is not the case, as I have found upon repeated analyses that what are called bastard varieties (which are not used for extracting the valuable principles above referred to)sell athigher prices in proportion to their resemblance to theofficinal kinds. Even in cases where they contain no valuable medicinal constituents they are invoiced at 3 to 4 times the price of the other varieties on board the same vessel containing 3 per cent. Now if our object in this law is to discourage the introduction of those articles that are used for the purpose of adulterating medicines, it is manifest that the true interest of all will be served by admitting those only of the bastard varieties that areequalto the inferior officinal varieties, particularly as they happen to be at a lower cost and are very abundant.” This is Dr. Stewart, Jan. 9, 1852. The whole of his report to me, a very interesting and able document, I intend publishing, and have delayed it for the purpose of accompanying it with some other matter of the same nature, not yet in hand.If I understand him correctly, he took entirely opposite ground in the Convention, and I certainly shall look with no ordinary interest for some explanation of a change so entire, in one whose position and well earned reputation give him importance and great influence in the final settlement of this matter. What new light has shone upon his path? What new facts has he to offer? I sayfinalsettlement, because I see by the appointment of a committee to whom the matter was referred, that the whole subject is but laid over. Although the convention negatived the resolution, as it did asimilarone a year ago in New York, they seem disposed to endow the question with as many lives as are fabled of the cat.Notwithstanding all the reasoning of the author of the resolution, backed by the eminent professor, and aided by other reasons, thick no doubt as blackberries, you practical men who buy and sell these articles, were not convinced and never will be. They may cry out for “tooth powder,” until the demand for dentrifice shall quadruple, and tell us of the legitimate use of Carthagena or Maracaibo barks; (what is its legitimate use?) all in vain, for it is too well{383}known that the main use of the article is to adulterate the genuine barks. Why does the Drug examiner at Baltimore, Dr. Stewart, say that the “bastard varietiessell at higherprices in proportion to theirresemblance to the officinal kinds?” Why this demand for such as resemble the genuine, but to supply it to the buyers of Peruvian bark for the genuine and officinal. There can be no other conclusion. If more proof is wanting I take the remark of the gentleman from New-York, that the “house he was connected with sold large quantities in powder, and the parties purchasing did so knowing its origin.” No one could doubt this statement, at least as to the quantity annually purchased, who will go through half-a-dozen drug stores in any of the country villages or small towns any where in our country from Maine to Louisiana.He will have offered prime, best quality cinchona bark for 40 to 100 cents almost any where, and in one half the cases the venders believe they are selling what they offer, for they bought it for that. Is this not so, or is it all bought for “tooth powder?” One half the druggists who go to our large cities, buy “pale yellow” and red bark, and never think to enquire for the inferior barks, and once drive these last from our seaboard cities, and we shall have done with them.You are aware that I have had some opportunity of becoming acquainted with the drug trade of our country, and I assure you that throughout its length and breadth there is more worthless Peruvian bark sold and consumed by far than of the genuine, mostly, I hope through ignorance, but many times knowingly on the part of the dealer.The same that has been said of these false barks, may be said of English rhubarb; when it is not sold for and in the place of Turkey, it is used to make powdered Turkey out of. But the resolution does not stop short at these two articles, as the discussion seemed to. There is “false jalap” undoubtedly good of its kind, but unfortunately for the buyer the kind is good for nothing, although it makes extract of jalap, that in looks cannot be told from the genuine.There is also Egyptian opium, and a false Sarsaparilla and many other important drugs, that should have received the attention of the friends of this resolution, all of which, I beg to assure them, are undoubtedly good of their kind.But I have written more than I designed by far, as the subject grows upon my hands, though I regard it a very important one, and vitally so to the drug law which lies at the very foundation of all beneficial results to grow out of this association, and the position of the association as to the whole subject is equally important, for if we unfortunately commit ourselves to a wrong principle in the start, and especially upon this standard of purity as applicable to our Drug examiners, which is now regarded as a test question by the community at large, we lose all hold upon their confidence, and with it all hope of effecting any good either to ourselves as a profession or to the community in general.My chief object in addressing you this communication (intended for the New York Journal of Pharmacy, if you choose so to use it) is to record my experience as differing in toto from those of Dr. Stewart and Prof. Carson, and to elicit a full discussion of the whole matter. Let us have light! light! light enough to{384}settle this question, especially about the barks, for they are the source of this whole contention after all. There must be data enough to be had, upon which to form an opinion, and a correct one as to the medicinal virtues of Maracaibo, and Carthagena barks, as well as of English rhubarb, false jalap, Egyptian opium etc., etc.I shall be perfectly satisfied if the labors of this committee result in fixing a definite standard of strength, or amount of alkaloids required to be found in barks before consumed for medicine, and therefore admissible under the act, but satisfied at nothing short of this, for till that is done there will never be any uniformity in the action of the law. I had designed to make some remarks upon the requirements of the law and its needed emendation which I must defer to more leisure.Yours,etc.,C. B. GUTHRIE.Memphis, Tenn., November 2, 1852.
GEO.D.GOGGESHALL,
My Dear Sir,—The proceedings of the National Pharmaceutical Convention have just come to hand, and been perused by me, with no ordinary degree of interest.
You have known somewhat of my anxiety concerning these preliminary and forming stages of an Association of this character, and will readily believe that I have awaited the results of the late Convention, from which, most unfortunately for myself, I was compelled to be absent, with great solicitude. That solicitude has been relieved, and in its stead I have the assurance that a good foundation to a National structure has been laid, towards which hope points and expectation looks with joyous anticipations of future good.
I may be permitted to congratulate you upon the successful labors of the convention, and more especially upon the fact that you have avoided any untenable false ground both in the convention and organization of the Association.
That old stumbling block of “all drugs good of their kind,” in reference to our Drug Law, I see made its appearance again, but this time from a quarter I{382}little expected. But it had, notwithstanding its new paternity and eminent godfathership, only, so far as I can see, the same lame, diffuse and weak conclusions to back it.
I was the more surprised at seeing the resolution in the form offered as coming from my friend Dr. Stewart, of Baltimore, because I had considered him as one who held entirely opposite opinions, and from this fact, that in a communication made to me in January last, as special agent of the Treasury Department, charged with the examination of the practical workings of the Drug Law, he says, “I have inspected several hundred thousand dollars worth of one drug which requires some particular notice, as I understand your views and mine correspond with regard to it, and you have succeeded in arranging a uniform system of examination at the different ports.
The prominent principles upon which its value is based vary from about one to four per cent. The commercial article of the best varieties is graduated by the quantity of valuable element above referred to, but with regard to the inferior kinds this is not the case, as I have found upon repeated analyses that what are called bastard varieties (which are not used for extracting the valuable principles above referred to)sell athigher prices in proportion to their resemblance to theofficinal kinds. Even in cases where they contain no valuable medicinal constituents they are invoiced at 3 to 4 times the price of the other varieties on board the same vessel containing 3 per cent. Now if our object in this law is to discourage the introduction of those articles that are used for the purpose of adulterating medicines, it is manifest that the true interest of all will be served by admitting those only of the bastard varieties that areequalto the inferior officinal varieties, particularly as they happen to be at a lower cost and are very abundant.” This is Dr. Stewart, Jan. 9, 1852. The whole of his report to me, a very interesting and able document, I intend publishing, and have delayed it for the purpose of accompanying it with some other matter of the same nature, not yet in hand.
If I understand him correctly, he took entirely opposite ground in the Convention, and I certainly shall look with no ordinary interest for some explanation of a change so entire, in one whose position and well earned reputation give him importance and great influence in the final settlement of this matter. What new light has shone upon his path? What new facts has he to offer? I sayfinalsettlement, because I see by the appointment of a committee to whom the matter was referred, that the whole subject is but laid over. Although the convention negatived the resolution, as it did asimilarone a year ago in New York, they seem disposed to endow the question with as many lives as are fabled of the cat.
Notwithstanding all the reasoning of the author of the resolution, backed by the eminent professor, and aided by other reasons, thick no doubt as blackberries, you practical men who buy and sell these articles, were not convinced and never will be. They may cry out for “tooth powder,” until the demand for dentrifice shall quadruple, and tell us of the legitimate use of Carthagena or Maracaibo barks; (what is its legitimate use?) all in vain, for it is too well{383}known that the main use of the article is to adulterate the genuine barks. Why does the Drug examiner at Baltimore, Dr. Stewart, say that the “bastard varietiessell at higherprices in proportion to theirresemblance to the officinal kinds?” Why this demand for such as resemble the genuine, but to supply it to the buyers of Peruvian bark for the genuine and officinal. There can be no other conclusion. If more proof is wanting I take the remark of the gentleman from New-York, that the “house he was connected with sold large quantities in powder, and the parties purchasing did so knowing its origin.” No one could doubt this statement, at least as to the quantity annually purchased, who will go through half-a-dozen drug stores in any of the country villages or small towns any where in our country from Maine to Louisiana.
He will have offered prime, best quality cinchona bark for 40 to 100 cents almost any where, and in one half the cases the venders believe they are selling what they offer, for they bought it for that. Is this not so, or is it all bought for “tooth powder?” One half the druggists who go to our large cities, buy “pale yellow” and red bark, and never think to enquire for the inferior barks, and once drive these last from our seaboard cities, and we shall have done with them.
You are aware that I have had some opportunity of becoming acquainted with the drug trade of our country, and I assure you that throughout its length and breadth there is more worthless Peruvian bark sold and consumed by far than of the genuine, mostly, I hope through ignorance, but many times knowingly on the part of the dealer.
The same that has been said of these false barks, may be said of English rhubarb; when it is not sold for and in the place of Turkey, it is used to make powdered Turkey out of. But the resolution does not stop short at these two articles, as the discussion seemed to. There is “false jalap” undoubtedly good of its kind, but unfortunately for the buyer the kind is good for nothing, although it makes extract of jalap, that in looks cannot be told from the genuine.
There is also Egyptian opium, and a false Sarsaparilla and many other important drugs, that should have received the attention of the friends of this resolution, all of which, I beg to assure them, are undoubtedly good of their kind.
But I have written more than I designed by far, as the subject grows upon my hands, though I regard it a very important one, and vitally so to the drug law which lies at the very foundation of all beneficial results to grow out of this association, and the position of the association as to the whole subject is equally important, for if we unfortunately commit ourselves to a wrong principle in the start, and especially upon this standard of purity as applicable to our Drug examiners, which is now regarded as a test question by the community at large, we lose all hold upon their confidence, and with it all hope of effecting any good either to ourselves as a profession or to the community in general.
My chief object in addressing you this communication (intended for the New York Journal of Pharmacy, if you choose so to use it) is to record my experience as differing in toto from those of Dr. Stewart and Prof. Carson, and to elicit a full discussion of the whole matter. Let us have light! light! light enough to{384}settle this question, especially about the barks, for they are the source of this whole contention after all. There must be data enough to be had, upon which to form an opinion, and a correct one as to the medicinal virtues of Maracaibo, and Carthagena barks, as well as of English rhubarb, false jalap, Egyptian opium etc., etc.
I shall be perfectly satisfied if the labors of this committee result in fixing a definite standard of strength, or amount of alkaloids required to be found in barks before consumed for medicine, and therefore admissible under the act, but satisfied at nothing short of this, for till that is done there will never be any uniformity in the action of the law. I had designed to make some remarks upon the requirements of the law and its needed emendation which I must defer to more leisure.Yours,etc.,C. B. GUTHRIE.Memphis, Tenn., November 2, 1852.
I shall be perfectly satisfied if the labors of this committee result in fixing a definite standard of strength, or amount of alkaloids required to be found in barks before consumed for medicine, and therefore admissible under the act, but satisfied at nothing short of this, for till that is done there will never be any uniformity in the action of the law. I had designed to make some remarks upon the requirements of the law and its needed emendation which I must defer to more leisure.
Yours,etc.,C. B. GUTHRIE.
Memphis, Tenn., November 2, 1852.
ADISCOURSEONTHETIMES,CHARACTERANDWRITINGSOFHIPPOCRATES,READBEFORETHETRUSTEES,FACULTYANDMEDICALCLASSOFTHECOLLEGEOFPHYSICIANSANDSURGEONS,ATTHEOPENINGOFTHETERM,1852,BYELISHABARTLETT,M. D.,PROFESSOROFMATERIAMEDICA,ANDMEDICALJURISPRUDENCE.Published by the Class.Introductory lectures are generally very common-place affairs. Custom has prescribed that every year the different medical schools shall be opened with them; and custom, too, has prescribed for them a certain limited range of topics. Year after year, in a hundred places, the same round is gone over, and the same good advice is listened to, and neglected. Dr. Bartlett has broken through all this. He has chosen for the subject of his discourse the Character and Writings of the Father of Medicine, and he has illustrated them well and thoroughly. This is not the place for a detailed notice of the lecture. Yet we cannot but call attention to the playful humour, the kindly and genial spirit which set off and enliven its details, and which, breathing from the whole air and features of the man, render him one of the most agreeable lecturers to whom we have ever listened.
ADISCOURSEONTHETIMES,CHARACTERANDWRITINGSOFHIPPOCRATES,READBEFORETHETRUSTEES,FACULTYANDMEDICALCLASSOFTHECOLLEGEOFPHYSICIANSANDSURGEONS,ATTHEOPENINGOFTHETERM,1852,BYELISHABARTLETT,M. D.,PROFESSOROFMATERIAMEDICA,ANDMEDICALJURISPRUDENCE.Published by the Class.
Introductory lectures are generally very common-place affairs. Custom has prescribed that every year the different medical schools shall be opened with them; and custom, too, has prescribed for them a certain limited range of topics. Year after year, in a hundred places, the same round is gone over, and the same good advice is listened to, and neglected. Dr. Bartlett has broken through all this. He has chosen for the subject of his discourse the Character and Writings of the Father of Medicine, and he has illustrated them well and thoroughly. This is not the place for a detailed notice of the lecture. Yet we cannot but call attention to the playful humour, the kindly and genial spirit which set off and enliven its details, and which, breathing from the whole air and features of the man, render him one of the most agreeable lecturers to whom we have ever listened.
EXCHANGES.—Hitherto the exchanges of this journal have not been conducted with proper regularity. It has neither been transmitted punctually to other journals, nor have they been received regularly in return. For the future this will be corrected; the journal will be forwarded immediately on its publication; and we hope our contemporaries will observe a like regularity with us.
EXCHANGES.—Hitherto the exchanges of this journal have not been conducted with proper regularity. It has neither been transmitted punctually to other journals, nor have they been received regularly in return. For the future this will be corrected; the journal will be forwarded immediately on its publication; and we hope our contemporaries will observe a like regularity with us.