STIMULANTS AND NARCOTICS 81 



Health in published document No. 34, as compared with the 

 percentages of alcohol found in whisky, champagne, claret, 

 and beer. The stomach bitters (Fig. 25), for example, con- 

 tained over eight times as much alcohol as that found in beer. 

 Hence, the average drug store where these patent medicines 

 are freely sold must share with the liquor saloon the heavy 

 responsibility for the prevalence of the drink habit. 



108. Pure food and drug law. — One of the most impor- 

 tant laws passed by the 59th Congress of the United States 

 was that which compels every manufacturer of foods or 

 medicines to state on the label the composition of each. 

 Analyses of foods and drugs have proved that hitherto many 

 of them were largely adulterated by cheap and often injurious 

 compounds, put in to increase the manufacturers' profits. 

 Then, too, as already stated, many patent medicines contain 

 high percentages of alcohol and other dangerous drugs. 

 Under the new law the purchaser, if he takes the trouble 

 to read the printed label, should be able to determine exactly 

 what he is paying for and putting into his body. 



109. Optional home work. — Examine the labels on any patent 

 medicine bottles or boxes you can find. Make a list of such com- 

 pounds as contain alcohol, opium, morphine, chloral, acetanilid, 

 or phenacetin, and state after each compound the percentage of 

 each of the drugs named. 



