THE ALUMNI JOURNAL, 



195 



such a nature as to place them beyond 

 the ethical boundary? Surely if the large 

 majority of medical practitioners in this 

 country does not deem it objectionable to 

 prescribe such drugs as phenacetin, anti- 

 pyrin, sulphonal, aristol, salol, homatro- 

 pine, etc., etc., are we not justified in 

 considering the supposed ethical barrier 

 as broken down ? These articles stand 

 on a basis entirely different from that 

 which is occupied by the ordinary pro- 

 prietary nostrums, the composition or 

 mode ot preparation of which is kept 

 secret. These new synthetic remedies 

 have not even the shadow of secrecy 

 about them. Their exact composition, 

 chemical and physical properties, mode 

 of preparation, reactions, etc., are thor- 

 oughly known, and controllable by tests 

 or assay. The only peculiar feature about 

 them is this, that those who discovered 

 them, usually after the expenditure of 

 years of labor and study, and after risk- 

 ing a large amount of money, retain such 

 control over them as insures to them a 

 fair return for their labor and outlay. 

 There is a positive advantage in the fact 

 that most of these synthetic products are 

 manufactured only in one place, by per- 

 sons entirely familiar with the various 

 processes, and always under the same 

 conditions. We thus have a better guar- 

 antee of their purity and uniformity than 

 if they were prepared promiscuously by 

 any one who chooses to undertake their 

 manufacture. Competition, the enemy 

 of prime quality, would soon make itself 

 felt by the deterioration of many of these 

 products, as they would appear on the 

 market. Foreign Pharmacopoeias have 

 long recognized and admitted a number 

 of these synthetic products, either under 

 specially coined names, or under those 

 by which they are universally known 

 and sold. There is no advantage gained 

 by coining for them new names, for the 

 latter will but rarely be used in actual 



practice, and they are merely chosen to 

 leave, as it were, a back-door open, in 

 case any one who defends their intro- 

 duction into the Pharmacopoeia should 

 be hard pressed for arguments. The plain 

 honest way — to call them by their com- 

 mon names — is the best. Had the last, 

 (that is, the present) Committee of Re- 

 vision known in time that salol was one 

 of these very articles, the manufacture 

 and name of which were protected by 

 proprietary rights, the article would cer- 

 tainly not have been admitted into the 

 Pharmacopoeia. It was only after the 

 appearance of the work that the commit- 

 tee learnt the facts relating to it. Since 

 salol is now in the Pharmacopoeia, it is 

 safe to presume that it will remain there^ 

 even under its present copyrighted name. 

 And if salol is to remain, why not take 

 this as a precedent and introduce such 

 other synthetic remedies as will be found 

 to have survived ephemeral fame and 

 really to m.erit recognition, when the 

 time of again revising the Pharmacopoeia 

 shall have arrived? 



The two themes which the writer would 

 suggest as worthy, among others, of con- 

 sideration, and regarding which it is very 

 desirable to obtain the sense of the medi- 

 cal profession, are the following: 



I. — It is proposed that the next Com- 

 mittee of Revision shall be authorized to 

 state the average doses in connection 

 with each drug or preparation used in- 

 ternally. The doses shall be designated 

 by a sub-committee consisting of those 

 members who are practitioners of medi- 

 cine, and shall be given in such forms as 

 will leave full liberty to the prescriber to 

 exceed the limits given. 



2. — It is proposed that the next Com- 

 mittee of Revision be authorized to in- 

 troduce into the Pharmacopoeia any com- 

 pound or preparation whose composition, 

 properties and mode of manufacture are 

 known, and whose identity, purity and 

 strength can be ascertained by tests, ir- 

 respective of any proprietary rights that 

 may be connected therewith. 



