56 Kansas Academy of Science. 



It seems to us that a medicine of this class, before it is al- 

 lowed to be placed on the open market, its formula and the 

 resulting product should be properly inspected by responsible 

 parties. This could be done without infringing upon the 

 rights of the manufacturers or promoters. 



The manufacturers of what are known as official remedial 

 agents are obliged by law to maintain a well-defined standard 

 in producing these agents. These standards are published, 

 and the products put upon the market are at all times subject 

 to chemical examination by authorized officials. This is as 

 it should be. But if the federal government and the state 

 require such rigid surveillance of the medicinal agents of the 

 higher order for the protection of the public, how important 

 is it that these agents of the lower order should be subject to 

 some sort of standardization. These remedies, so artistically 

 concealed from ordinary inspection by attractive wrapper and 

 carton, are none the less liable to deterioration and diversity. 

 It is not probable that this proposed exaction for these do- 

 mestic remedies would work any hardship or injustice to the 

 manufacturer or the trade. On the contrary, by raising the 

 standard and instituting a judicious surveillance it would help 

 both the manufacturer and the trade. It would discourage 

 and drive out of business, it is true, those who take advantage 

 of the much-abused privilege which men of all classes — trained 

 and untrained — claim of dosing their fellow men on a purely 

 commercial basis. 



