THE ALU MX I JOURNAL. 



2°3 



Published under the auspices of the 



Alumni Association of the College of Pharmacy 



OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK, 



115=119 WEST 68th STREET. 



Vol. II. 



August, 1895. 



No. 8. 



The Alumni Journal will be published Monthly. 

 Entered at New York Post Office as second-class matter 



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EDITOR, 

 B. FRANK HAYS, Ph. G. 



ASSISTANT EDITORS. 



FRED. HOHENTHAL, Ph. G. 

 K. C. MAHEGIN, PH. G. 



ASSOCIATE EDITORS, 



CHARLES RICE, PH. D 



CH \RLES F. CHANDLER, Ph. D., M. D., L.L.D., etc. 



ARTHUR H. ELLIOTT, Ph. D., F. C. S. 



HENRY H. RUSBY, M. D. 



VIRGIL COBLENTZ, A. M„ Ph. G., Ph. D. 



PATENTS ON nEDICINAL PRODUCTS. 



Among the various topics that will 

 probably come up for discussion at the 

 American Pharmaceutical Association at 

 Denver will be one of unusual interest. 

 It will need be approached in a broad 

 spirit with due consideration for the 

 rights of all involved. 



We refer to the question of the patent- 

 ing of medicinal articles. 



While^the broad fact that the work- 

 man is worthy of his wage, and that the 

 inventor should receive a proper reward 

 for his discovery is indisputable, yet 

 humanity demands [^that the reward 

 should come in a different and more gen- 

 eral way, and not as a direct tax upon 

 those, who, by reason of illness, are often 

 least able to bear them. 



The tendency of modern medicine lies 

 in the use of remedies of which anti- 

 pyrine and sulfonal may be taken as 

 types. 



Many of these remedies have undoubted 

 therapeutical value; indeed, the practi- 

 tioner of to-day, if deprived of these new 

 and improved methods of treating dis- 

 ease, would find himself seriously handi- 

 capped. It is because of the price 

 charged by manufacturers for these prod- 

 ucts that the point in question has as- 

 sumed serious aspects, 



Sulfonal, which may be taken as an 

 example, has been sold in this country 

 for about five times as much per ounce 

 as it could be purchased for in Germany. 

 It is also highly probable that the dis- 

 coverer reaps but a small share of the 

 benefit of this extortionate price. 



Now, in granting a patent, under the 

 present existing conditions, the govern- 

 ment assumes to protect the inventor in 

 the sole rights of his invention or discov- 

 ery for a certain number of years, and 

 thereby inherently guarantees him a 

 certain pecuniary reward, depending 

 largely upon the usefulness to the masses, 

 of the invention or discovery. 



Unfortunately, the inventor rarely 

 reaps the real benefit; the patient toil, 

 experiment, and often great expense to 

 which he is put, frtquently compel him 

 to part with his rights, in advance, for a 

 small sum. Only too often this ends in 

 disappointment and poverty; sometimes 

 suicide. 



With the Patent laws, as they apply to 



