BASIS AND VEHICLE.

The last issue of the Western Druggist contains an editorial article on the misuse of the word base for vehicle in connection with ointments, the writer taking the correct ground that lard, or petrolatum. etc., is a vehicle, not a base as so many writers claim. American writers of eminence as a rule adhere to the use of the word vehicle, but we note that Proctor in his "Lectures on Practical Pharmacy" and Cripps in "Galenic Pharmacy" both use the term "ointment base"; the B. P. also in the monograph on paraffin ointment uses the word "basis." We think it would be just as correct to say that 60 per cent alcohol is the basis of tincture of calumba, as to say that benzoated lard is the basis of cantharides ointment. The cases are exactly similar, but we do not think that any would have the hardihood to say that the first is correct, and if not, why not apply the same rule to ointments?

We

for some

In explanation we wish to say that we do not hold the present council entirely responsible for existing conditions nor the state of our pharmacy act. Such, as Mr. Mackenzie says, would be most unjust. use the expression "The work * years past" to prevent just such a misconception. The subject of bettering the condition of pharmacy in Canada is a live one, and one that will justify considerable thought being given to it by every member of the craft. Our intention in writing last month was not so much to secure a change of men as a change of policy.

1

AN APPROACHING CHANGE.

There is now under discussion a plan by which McGill University will absorb the Montreal College of Pharmacy and open a department of pharmacy, such as is carried on by all the great American and European universities. The plan of course will meet with opposition, as all plans for improvement do, but the change is inevitable. Almost all the colleges of pharmacy in the U. S. are now branches of universities, the only prominent exceptions being those of Philadelphia, New York and Boston, which are old and wealthy institutions. Pharmacists in the American cities have found that the trouble and expense of carrying on successfully a school of pharmacy are more than they could stand, and have been only too glad when they bave been able to unload their burden onto an institution able to carry on the work. The same thing will occur in Montreal, if not now, at a later period.

The Montreal College of Pharmacy has been in existence for thirty years, carried on by a few men who devoted their time and, in many cases, money

to the work, and what is the result?

If we compare the equipment and curriculum with those of any of the American colleges we will find that it is so far in the rear that the hope of catching up with the procession seems an impossibility. One reason for this is the lack of funds, the other is the general apathy of the graduates and pharmacists in general towards the college; not 20 per cent. of the graduates ever become members, and the average pharmacist does not seem to care whether the college goes out of exis

tence or not.

Then,

The curriculum of the college is totally inadequate to the demands of modern requirements. The least of American colleges of good standing requires at least 100 hours per term of practical work in both the chemical and pharmaca! laboratories. In our college students receive at the most 25 hours in the chemical laboratory, and none at all at practical pharmacy. Can this be remedied? If the college had a fund of about $100,000 it could be; $60,000 to put up and equip a proper building, and the balance as a reserve fund. to carry on a college of pharmacy properly, the lectures must be given in the day time, and the laboratories, chemical, pharmacal, and botanical, must be open all the time with a professor or proficient assistants in charge of each, No one fit to fill such a position will do it for less than $2,000 a year, and as we would require two staffs (French and English) of at least three professors each, it would involve a salary list of $12,000 per annum. We do not think that such an annual income is within the range of possibility, and nothing else will do if we are to compete successfully with other institutions.

Everyone who has given any study to the question of pharmacal education and has observed the improvements that have been and are being made everywhere else in this line must acknowledge that some change must be made. We must either find some millionaires generous enough to endow the college with the amount stated above, or else find some institution such as McGill or Laval UniverIsity which will undertake to give courses on the necessary subjects. McGill has the funds, the laboratories, and everything necessary to give a bearer of its diploma a standing second to none in America.

There are but two objections which can be urged against such a plan. One is the lectures must be in daytime and students will be taken away from work for so many hours daily. On this point we may as well state the facts squarely, the time has come when a student cannot divide his time between work and study, he must give up one for the other. Many do it now, and it would be better

for pharmacy if this were made the rule, not the exception.

The other objection is that the lectures, etc., would be in English, and consequently French students would be handicapped. This is the only valid objection which can be urged against the scheme. But it is not sufficient to block it, as most of the French students are conversant with English and use only English text books in their studies, and consider the question of language as of very secondary importance when compared with the obtaining of a good pharmacal education. In order that pharmacy in Quebec keep pace with the general advance, it is necessary that we have an institution which will give an up-to-date education, that is, requiring at least two years attendance at lectures, of which there should be four per week on chemistry and pharmacy with from 10 to 16 hours weekly laboratory practice in both branches, and two per week on botany and pharmacognosy with four hours laboratory work, with lectures on materia medica, bacteriology and kindred subjects. Nothing else will fill the requirements of modern pharmacal education, and if the authorities of McGill are willing to offer such a course, the Montreal College of Pharmacy should accept it, in the interests of the students and of pharmacy in this Province.

THE FIGHTING LINE.

We are not in a position to know just how many of our readers acted upon the advice in last month's JOURNAL and wrote to their Legislative representative on the subject of the Assessment Act Amendment, introduced by Mr. German at the request of The Retail Merchants' Association, but those who did so can congratulate themselves on the results of the efforts expended. The bill came before the Municipal Committee of the Legislature for consideration on Thursday, March 23rd. The case of the Association was presented by the Solicitor, President, and Secretary, in forceful and convincing speeches. These speeches were backed up by a numerous depu tation of Toronto merchants, who crowded the Committee room, swarming over the table and chairs and overflowing into the corridor without. The interest taken by the druggists in this movement was evidenced by the number in attendance, there being a larger proportion than any other line of business.

The Chairman called for an expression of opinion which started a discussion by members of the Committee, and when the Attorney-General put the question for the adoption of the principal of the bill, the resultant vote was a surprise to those who had anticipated a fight for it, as the adoption was unanimous; not a single hand went up in opposition. This grati

fying result was achieved through the earnest and persistent labors of the Executive Committee of the Association, who have been in daily attendance at the house, discussing the merits of the bill and enlightening the members on the iniquities of the present unjust methods, which permit the perjurer and artful dodger to escape taxation and loads the burden on the honest, truthful dealer.

We look upon this as the initial step in bringing about a much needed reform. Too many business men are disposed to be pessimistic, sitting down in their shops, deploring existing conditions and lamenting that "nothing can be done", when all that is required is an effort. We do not wish to magnify results achieved, but make use of them as an object lesson and encouragement for more earnest labor on the part of those who have taken the burden up and also as a call to action for those who, up to the present, have shirked their responsibility.

(Later). A number of business men of Toronto, considering this bill as detrimental to their interests, succeeded by the aid of a large array of lawyers in having it reconsidered by the committee. These parties were heard on Wednesday, 29th, and it was arranged with the council of the retailers that the matter should be deferred for a year, and in the meantime a committee of the house will make a careful enquiry into the matter of personalty assess

ment.

OFFICIAL AND OFFICINAL AGAIN.

It is with pleasure that we give space to Mr. A. J. Laurence's letter with regard to our editorial in our last issue. Mr. Laurence makes an able statement of the case from his point of view, but he has not converted us, as we still hold the same opinion on the question. Admitting that the word officiel is not used in France, (which we do not,) conditions are not the same there as here. The terms officinal and magistral to define two classes of preparations are not used here, but the words official and officinal are; it will thus be seen that the word officinal has not exactly the same value in French and in English, and as most of our French students use only English authors such as Squire, Remington and Auldfield in preparing for their examinations they adopt the natural translation of officiel for official, and we asked that, in order to obviate this confusion, the French examiners should have adopted the same translation, which we hold to be the only correct one. The derivations of the two words are quite enough in support of our contention.

tion.

That the word officiel is an Anglicism is no objecEnglish words are being constantly taken up by the French and used daily, as conditions demand new words, and if the French find an Eng

new

lish word which is more convenient than a French one they adopt it. The same with German, which includes hundreds of French words, some without change, others slightly modified. Colloquial English contains many French words adopted for convenience, so that the objection with regard to Anglicism is of no value.

As regards the cause of our editorials, Mr. Laurence is mistaken, as it was due to French-Canadian students, so many of whom had spoken to us about the matter that we took it up. We do not know of any English pharmacist who is interested in the question at all, but as this journal numbers amongst its subscribers almost all the pharmacists of the Province of Quebec, both French and English, as well as a large number of the students, we took the matter up in the interests of the latter. We will be pleased to pub lish any further communications on the matter, either in French or English.

A LITERARY PIRATE.

Re

In the March 15th, 1898, issue of Merck's Report appeared an article entitled "Leaks and How to Prevent Them" by Edmund J. Weir, of Toronto. cently a part of the article was published in the Bulletin of Pharmacy, and duly credited to Merck's Report. Reading over this portion it struck us as having a rather familiar look, and finally we concluded that we had seen it before, in fact, had written it. And it did not take us long to find the original from which Mr. Weir had taken his copy.

In the PHARMACAL GAZETTE for February, 1896, we published an article entitled "Practical Pointers," one section of which was devoted to "Distilled Waters," and in the same journal for May we had an editorial entitled "The Care of Stock," and from these two which Mr. Weir copied almost verbatim et literatim is built up one section of his paper entitled "Unstable Galenicals."

The average plagiarist will make some changes. He will scarcely dare copy word for word; but Mr. Weir is not an average plagiarist, he is something extraordinary, for he has not taken the trouble to make any changes whatever. He is wasting his time and abilities if he remains cooped up in the narrow confines of pharmacy. Here are a few samples: