Chemical and Physical Papers. 55 



was a necessity in those widely separated households. Some 

 of the most conspicuous physicians of those times wrote do- 

 mestic works for the people and taught them the rudiments 

 of home medication. The lineal descendants of this class are 

 the so-called patent medicines of our day. The old style of 

 domestic medicines has been usurped by the present-day nos- 

 trums devised by those who claim the right to dose their fellow 

 man, though themselves ignorant of the elements of pharmacy 

 or medicine. The unfortunate result is that with this practice 

 (controlled entirely by the spirit of commercialism) there has 

 developed an era of self-medication, each one dosing himself 

 with his own ideal nostrum, and his ideal is manufactured 

 for him by the advertisements in the periodicals and in the 

 daily press. This form of medication has grown to such an 

 extent, and the commercial instinct has so cultivated and 

 nourished it, that we are to-day facing a serious problem 

 which has to do with public health. Into the various attrac- 

 tive packages of pills, powders, tablets and liquids have been 

 compounded the synthetics, heart depressants, narcotics and 

 treacherous drugs that may or may not be skilfully com- 

 pounded — in some cases by irresponsible persons who have 

 little or no pharmaceutical or medical knowledge, but have 

 the money to exploit them. Both physicians and pharmacists 

 are partly to blame for this condition. 



We have recently examined some of the medicines of this 

 class in the drug laboratory and find among them another 

 condition which we did not suspect, namely, a deterioration 

 of the material, a disintegration of what was supposed to be 

 a stable compound. The compound may have been, when put 

 up, in good condition, but a lapse of time has broken down its 

 combination. 



We would not have it understood that all combinations of 

 this class contain death-dealing drugs, nor that all such me- 

 dicinal agents are unstable. To be just and fair one must ad- 

 mit that some of the so-called patent medicines have the char- 

 acter of reputable combinations and are as useful as were the 

 domestic remedies of primitive times, and we are not willing 

 to say that if the two professions, pharmacy and medicine, 

 should conscientiously seek to control them they would decide 

 upon a war of their extermination. We do say, however, that 

 for the public good some sort of control should be inaugurated. 

 The food and drug law only partly meets the public demand. 



