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Meyer Brothers Druggist

VOL. XXI.

PUBLISHED MONTHLY IN THE INTERESTS OF THE ENTIRE DRUG TRADE.

ST. LOUIS, DECEMBER, 1900.

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No. 12.

Editorial

L. T. Hoy, of Springfield, secretary of the Illinois Board of Pharmacy, is represented by the picture on the cover of the MEYER BROTHERS DRUGGIST for October.

No Cure No Pay.-The subject of handling patent medicines under the rule of "no cure no pay" is attracting the attention of pharmacists in some sections of the country. It is a question in the minds of many druggists to know just what they should do when the proprietor of an article advertises to the public that his medicine is sold with the guarantee "no cure no pay."

Some druggists feel that customers will take undue advantage of them by returning to the store and demanding that the money be refunded. It is very difficult, indeed, to tell in every case whether or not the customer has recovered from his illness. It is a still more perplexing problem to solve when the pharmacist attempts to analyze the action of the remedy in question. Perhaps the patient recovered without the influence of the medicine.

We have always felt that the plan of selling goods on the "no cure no pay" guarantee is one to be avoided by conscientious and business-like pharmacists. We approve of the action of those dealers who plainly inform their customers when goods of that kind are called for that they do not do business in accordance with such questionable methods.

If medicine was an exact science the "no cure no pay" plan would still have many unpleasant features. As it is now, no medicine can be looked upon as an absolute specific. The most skilful physician in the world must admit that the element of uncertainty enters largely into the practice of therapeutics. Under such conditions, the manufacturer of patent medicines who depends upon the public to diagnose their own cases must often fail to obtain satisfactory results from the administration of even the best devised preparations. Thus it is from both a moral and financial standpoint that the pharmacist must avoid becoming the third party to the "no cure no pay" transactions.

German Pharmacists and the Patent Medicine Business.-Judging from the proceedings of the phar

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maceutical organizations and the pages of publications in Germany devoted to the drug business, the pharmacists are finding it impossible to make a decent living. A general revolution seems to be taking place all over the world and affecting economic conditions. Living is becoming more expensive and the supposed necessities of life multiplied. The pharmacists of Germany and Austria receive from their governments a concession or permit to practice pharmacy. This does not testify to their qualifications, but is really a protection against competition.

The governments endeavor to prevent the advertising of patent medicines, but the ingenious manufacturers succeed in one way or another to bring their goods to the notice of the public. Thus, the demand increases and cuts into the profits of the pharmacists who refuse to become mere traders or merchants.

Keystone State. It seems that the board of pharmacy employed detectives to investigate and report upon the condition of the drug trade in relation to the pharmacy law of Pennsylvania. The report goes into details, but states in a general way that flagrant violations of the law are common. It says that the agents found no difficulty in purchasing poisons from various classes of unqualified salesmen and women, from a scrub girl to the pharmacist who had simply neglected to register. In one case the proprietor of the store was unable to speak English, so he allowed the detective to help himself, but the salesman knew how to count money and make the proper change.

It is likely that the true condition of affairs is greatly exaggerated by the agency report. Detectives are given to making the best possible showing for their labors. We trust that the board of pharmacy in pushing prosecutions will give attention only to wilful violations of the law. A pharmacy law is established for the purpose of protecting the public life and health, and prosecutions should never be based upon purely technical points. A properly enforced pharmacy law will have the respect and co-operation of all competent and well meaning pharmacists.

Mr. George Hoffman, of Dresden, addressed the German Apothecaries' Association, at Stuttgart, recently, and endeavored to point out all of the conditions surrounding what we call the patent and proprietary medicine trade. He believes that many of the pharmacists of his country are endeavoring to steal other men's brains by themselves manufacturing preparations that simulate and are advertised to the public as a substitute for well-known patent and proprietary-While our newspapers record a list of suicides which articles. It seems to be very difficult for the pharma cists of that country to adapt themselves to new trade conditions.

Give Support to the Brosius Pure Food and Drug Bill. We have, on numerous occasions, called the attention of our readers to the certainty with which this country is to have pure food and drug legislation. Every one in any way interested in the drug trade should see to it that the bill is so framed that it will, when placed in operation, avoid working a hardship upon legitimate members of the drug trade. The Pharmaceutical Era, for November 22, comments editorially on the bill, and among other things, says: There is imperatively needed pure food and drug legislation for the country at large. While the Brosius Bill is by no means perfect, it is infinitely better than nothing, and so far as we can see, from a careful study of it, it will work no injury to the interests of any honest merchant, but it is calculated to make it rather warm for the wilfully dishonest adulterator of foods and medicines. In the matter of labeling foods and drug products it requires nothing more than the purchaser has a right to demand-a true statement of the composition of the article on sale. The present status of the bill is that it has been reported favorably to the House, with the recommendation by the commit tee of the Interstate Commerce that it be passed. It is now on the calendar and would not be reached in the coming session in the regular order of business and must, therefore, be made a special issue. The promise has been made to get the Committee on Rules to introduce a special order to have this bill considered before the holidays so that it can pass the House and go to the Senate. If our leading business men would write to Mr. Brosius, to Speaker Henderson and to the honorable members, John Dalzell, Charles H. Grosvenor, James D. Richardson and Joseph W. Bailey, urging them to secure immediate action on this bill, it would have a very favorable effect. There is no doubt the bill would pass by a large majority if it can be brought up for consideration.

"Those Wicked Pennsylvania Druggists" is the description which a detective agency of that commonwealth feels like applying to the pharmacists of the

Why She Lived More Than One Hundred Years.

reaches alarming proportions, it is true that the general public eagerly reads everything that is said about the lives of those who reach a ripe old age before succumbing to the ravages of disease. A Chicago newspaper took up the case of an old lady in that city who died at the advanced age of over one hundred years. As usual, the reporter made much of the alleged reasons for her attaining such a great lease on life. The most prominent explanation given was that she lived without the aid of physicians or the use of medicine.

The enterprising editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association investigated the case and learned that, while it was true that this woman passed the century mark, it was anything but correct to state that she lived independent of physicians and medical agents. He found that she had been under the care of the same physician for twenty-seven years previous to her death. This doctor, for the past fifteen years, had attended her for illness at least every three months. In fact, for more than a quarter of a century she had regulated her life by his advice. We mistrust that the reporter who wrote up the article for the newspaper was of the same ilk as those who find evidences of the use of chloroform in many of the burglaries.

Looking For a Cheap and Poor Diploma.-—We have a letter from a reader who asks us to name the college of pharmacy which we believe will grant him a diploma on the lowest grade of requirements. The kind of diploma he seeks is similar to the cheap medical diploma mentioned by the Medical Fortnightly when it says:

We trust the physicians will show a little sound sense in keeping from this "seeming wise" scheme. Be honest workers, and assume not to bunco patients with meaningless certifi

cates, which, though they may be ornamental, do not represent a thing, except your outlay of money in their purchase. Physicians should not forget their purpose in life, nor forget that advance to perfection is not by false routes. "You should purge your will, and correct that faculty which makes use of the appearances of things." "Do not be captivated by expression, syllogisms nor sophisms," and thus waste your substance, but cultivate strength to resist such weaknesses. To succeed in medicine we must force ourselves to work, work honestly, truly and cultivate each successive day, for by so doing we find a new supply of strength. Honest work opens up the possibilities of professional success. Each honest step makes possible the next, and thus step by step honor and glory are achieved. Bogus heavy royal linen paper or sheep-skin certificates cannot give strength nor build power. The charm of success is to be found only in doing your best, and in doing it honestly.

The Elevator Disease.—Medical students of today do not hear as much about housemaid's knee as did their preceptors in earlier college days. New diseases, however, are coming to the front and we read about the typewriter finger and the bicycle face. The latest addition to the list is the elevator disease, not

of the "lift" as it is called in England, but of the boy

who runs it. An architectural journal claims that his rapid trips through space produce a peculiar disease, but it fails to mention the symptoms, and the medical profession is anxious to learn them.

Manufacturers of pharmaceutical preparations will have an opportunity of placing a new patent medicine on the market as soon as the disease is well defined; thus, pharmacists will become directly interested in the affliction. The publication creating this new disease is probably far from the mark in its statements. It reminds us of those who objected to railroad trains when these means of conveyance were first used, claiming that it would be injurious to human life to be carried through space at the rate of thirty or forty miles an hour.

"Those Horrid Doctors" is what novelist Ouida must think when she has occasion to refer to the members of the medical profession-at least we judge so from some of her recent writings. She says that physicians are scientists who teach men and women to see possible or probable death in everything that approaches them. She imagines that the medical profession would have the entire world live in a stench of disinfectants. She charges them with teaching people to slink with fear of contamination from the rosy lips of a child and flee from the good-natured gambols of a merry dog. If Ouida was the wife of a physician she would soon learn that one of the greatest trials of a doctor's life is that of teaching people the necessity of living in accordance with the laws of nature, of making them value sunlight, fresh air, proper exercise and wholesome diet. She would soon find out that the majority of human ills are imaginary and due not to physicians' teaching but existing in spite of their efforts to eradicate such misconceptions.

The Metric System in Materia Medica.-Prof. John V. Shoemaker, author of a work on materia medica and therapeutics, unhesitatingly puts to practical use his faith in the metric system. The new

edition of the volume just from the press of the F. A. Davis Co. contains the following paragraph in the author's introduction:

"The metric system of weights and measures is now used almost exclusively in works of pure science and is becoming more general in medicine. It is, no doubt, destined eventually to supersede the older system so long employed in English-speaking countries. The metric system has the important advantage of establishing a uniformity of notation throughout the civilized world. In order to facilitate its universal adoption, it is desirable that the student should be trained in its use from the beginning of his professional course. In this edition the doses in the text are all given in the decimal terms, together with their equivalents in the English system."

The Internal Revenue on medicines is carefully considered by Commissioner Wilson in his annual report. There have been found on the market a large number of medical preparations which have been held

by the United States courts to be exempt from tax ation under the clause exempting uncompounded chemicals, which are, nevertheless, put up under a patent or trade-mark, and for which proprietary rights are claimed. It is believed, says the report, that Congress intended to tax all patent, proprietary or trademark medicinal preparations alike, and it is recommended that the law be changed so as to effect this end.

If our readers are doing their duty as pointed out by the N. A. R. D. and writing to their representatives at Washington, the changes will be more sweeping than the commissioner anticipates. Do not fail to let the Congressmen know that the tax on patent medicines should be removed or a similar tax imposed on all patent and proprietary articles.

Five Hundred Dollars for a Dose of Alum.-A New Orleans pharmacist has been sued by a street car conductor of that city, who claims that the druggist dispensed powdered alum for epsom salts. The co nductor took a dose, and, as a result, was obliged to pay a physician $5.00 for medical services, lose seven days' work at $1.65 each, and was caused suffering and fright amounting to $500.00. This bill the druggist refuses to pay, so the conductor has entered suit. It seems that it will be difficult for the customer to prove the dispensing accident.

Practical Questions are what attract attention at State meetings. The associations proposing such problems as, "What advantage has a freshly made pill over one already made?" "What advantage has a freshly made emulsion over one which is readymade?" strikes the happy medium between the extremes of highly scientific and purely commercial. The committees on papers and queries should increase the proportion of questions like the ones just mentioned.

Only Nine Months to the A. Ph. A. meeting in St. Louis, September 16, 1901.

STRAY ITEMS AND COMMENTS.

The Hall of Fame on University Heights, New York, includes the name of Prof. Asa Gray, the botanist, whose work is so familiar to the pharmacists of this country.

Patent Medicines form an important item of commerce at the Cape Coast of Africa. A pharmacist located there regrets that their sales are by no means confined to the drug trade.

A Prominent Pharmacist retired from the drug business on account of spasmodic asthma. Whenever he handled powdered ipecac or Dover's powder, it brought on attacks of the disease.

The Teeth of School Children in Russia are attended to by the Public Health Society, which has appointed a committee for the purpose. This applies to the school system of the entire empire.

Colleges of Pharmacy are decidedly a creation of the nineteenth century. In 1812 no college of pharmacy existed in London, and it was not until 1844 that laboratory work was added to colleges then existing in the English capital.

Commercial Pharmacy is reaching the importance of a paramount issue in some of the colleges of pharmacy. The Minnesota State University Pharmacy College announces that it has been giving a series of lectures on practical pharmacy since 1893.

Do You Buy for cash and sell for cash? If so, many of the readers of the MEYER BROTHERS DRUGGIST would be pleased to learn just how you accomplish such a desirable practice. If you care to give them the secret it will be much appreciated.

A Test for Living Tissue has been devised by M. Augustus Waller. It depends upon the principle that living matter responds to electric excitation by a current in the same direction. The same matter killed by an elevation of temperature does not respond to this excitation.

Mummy Wheat Will Not Germinate.-It is now definitely shown that the wheat found with mummies has long since lost the power of growing. The pictures which were published some years ago showing what was supposed to be wheat grown from seed found with mummies are now pronounced fake illustrations.

The Code of Ethics of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy has not been altered since 1840. An exchange says this is a testimonial to the farsighted men who then composed and adopted a code of ethics that has stood as a model ever since. We have not seen the code, but venture to assert that it is violated by fully as large a proportion of pharmacists as it was in 1840.

Not Well Posted.-The percentage of qualified pharmacists appearing before the West Virginia Board of Pharmacy at its recent meeting was ex

tremely small-only one out of five passing. This simply emphasizes the statement we have so frequently made that candidates waste time and money in appearing before the board without properly qualifying for the examination.

The Pan-American Exposition, at Buffalo, N. Y., 1901, will give special attention to the drug exhibits. It is the intention of the managers to illustrate the method of manufacture of different drugs, giving in detail the difference between genuine and spurious articles, as well as the method of determining different qualities. As an example: One exhibit will show the manufacture of bay rum, from the gathering of the shoots to the finished product as placed on the retail market. Mr. Alger M. Wheeler will have charge of the department devoted to medicines.

Drug Store Spices.-The Druggists Circular, says: "The ordinary grocery store spices are far from satisfactory. I know one druggist who has a very large sale on cinnamon, especially, at four times the grocery store prices. How does he get this trade? He sells cinnamon bark from cultivated shoots of the second year's growth. The ordinary grocery store bark is from wild trees of from ten to thirty years' growth. The fact is, as he has demonstrated to the satisfaction of many of his lady customers, that such a cinnamon is worth four times as much as the cheap woody stuff. If druggists want to maintain the high standard of their profession, why not take hold of a few things like this, and show that they can give a better service than grocery stores give? This is better than talking against department and grocery store competition."

The Tarrant & Company Disaster.-Our readers are already familiar with the newspaper reports of the destruction of the Tarrant & Company building, of New York City. This well-known wholesale, retail manufacturing and importing firm was burned out a few years ago. The original building was occupied by the founder of the firm, James Tarrant, in 1834, and remained the home of the firm until the fire of 1892. The handsome eight-story building which replaced the burned building is the one which was destroyed by fire and explosions October 29. The loss to property is in the neighborhood of $1,500,000.00. The destruction of the building and goods owned by the firm is placed at $225,000.00. This is fully covered by insurance which, we understand, the insurance companies will be obliged to pay. At the present writing, no satisfactory explanation has been given for the cause of the explosions. The bare facts are that a fire broke out which later resulted in a series of explosions. The victims of such accidents always have the sympathy of allied trades. Mr. Thomas F. Main, president of the Tarrant Company, is an exceptionally popular person, and has been showered with letters and telegrams of sympathy from all sections of the country. He desires to publicly acknowledge the receipt of them and return thanks, for the kind and thoughtful messages.

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PRESCRIPTION CASE DEPARTMENT.

BY PROF. J. M. GOOD, PH. G., HON. M. D., DEAN ST. LOUIS COLLEGE OF PHARMACY.

Sulphate of Cinchona.-"F. H. W." asks: "What shall I dispense for sulphate of cinchona?" Cinchonia is undoubtedly meant. It is official now as cinchonine. The sulphate is official also.

Solution of Arsenic and Gold Bromide is an article with which some of our readers are unfamiliar. The question is asked, "What is it?" The inquirer will find the formula and directions as to manipulation in preparing it in the last edition of the National Formulary. It is formula No. 221; title, “Liquor Auri et Arsenii Bromidi." The original of this is a proprietary preparation, "Arsenauro," controlled by Chas. Roome Parmele Co., New York.

Anisated Spirit of Ammonia was ordered in a prescription. A subscriber asks information as to the article to be dispensed.

This is Liquor Ammonii Anisatus, of the German Pharmacopoeia. It is made as follows:

R Oil of anise.....

Alcohol....

Mix and add

Water of ammonia ....

I part.

.24 parts.

5 parts.

Parts by weight, it is understood, are to be used in the above formula.

Powdered Asafœtida.—A subscriber asks for the "most practical way of reducing asafoetida to powder."

The answer, briefly, is "don't."

Asafoetida, in proper condition, is a soft mass, owing to the solvent action of the volatile oil upon the resinous constituent. It cannot be powdered without first depriving it of its oil and afterwards adding an inert powder. In this condition it is nearly valueless. In substance, it may be administered in the form of pills.

Incompatibility.-"C. & V.," of Texas, write: "How should the following prescription be prepared to make an emulsion to hold and render it permanent? We find it difficult and the result unsatisfactory." R Bal. copaiba........

Syrup sarsaparilla compound..
Tinct. ferric chloride.
Tinct. opium....

Sig. Teaspoonful three times a day.

3 iii. .3 iii. Zii. 3i.

Ask the physician to make a separate prescription of the tincture of iron. It is the disturbing ingredient in the above, especially if acacia be used as the emulsifier.

Spirit of Sulphur.-A number of answers have been sent us in response to the query: "What is spirit of sulphur?" The consensus of opinion seems to be in favor of sulphuric acid as the substance meant. This explanation has its analogy in spirit of nitre for nitric acid. Being obtained by the process of distillation they were not inappropriately called "spirits" in the days when the nomenclature of chemistry was in

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Melt these together in an evaporating dish over a low flame. Strain the mixture through muslin and stir it gently while cooling.

The odor of it is rendered more agreeable by the addition of oil of lavender flowers, as in the case of the official "diachylon ointment." It is a more desirable preparation than the latter, because it is not so likely to become rancid.

Fluid Extract Viburnum.-A correspondent asks: "What should be dispensed when fluid extract of viburnum is called for in a prescription?"

Both "viburnum opulus" and "viburnum prunifolium" are official. There are other species of the genus used, hence, when designated as above, the dispenser is somewhat perplexed.

The directions and use to which the medicine is to be put might aid in arriving at a decision. In the absence of all hints and inability to communicate with the prescriber, it would seem to be allowable to dispense the fluid extract of viburnum prunifolium, as this is the only species in general use.

Speaking of viburnum opulus, the authors of the United States Dispensatory say: "This bark has been so little employed in medicine that we are at a loss to understand the reason for its introduction into the Pharmacopoeia."

Ethyl Sulphate.-A subscriber wishes us to "give the complete reaction when sulphuric acid and ethyl alcohol are mixed in a prescription." We would prefer to have him ask us something easy. When an organic substance (of which alcohol is one) is broken up, various new compounds are formed. Upon standing, there is produced in the above mixture, ethyl sulphate (sulphovinic acid, sulphethylic acid and ethylsulphuric acid are synonyms). The following is the reaction: C2H,OH+H2SO4=C2H,HSO1+H2O. It will be seen that this new compound is an acid salt of the monad radical ethyl.

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between the temperatures 266 and 280° F (130°. By the further addition of alcohol and distillation 138°C) the most important substance produced is ether, the reaction being as follows: C2H ̧HSO4+C2 H2Oн=(C2Hs)2O+H2SO4.

While it is understood that the foregoing chemical formulas show the principal reactions, it must be borne in mind that the resulting product is quite complex in its composition.

In the manufacture of ether these undesirable products are eliminated, almost wholly, in the process of the purification of the distillate.

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