January, 1883. 
THE CHEMIST AND DEUGGIST. 
Are Improvements in Pharmacy 
Profitable to the Drug Trade ? 
fTIHE question is sometimes raised as to which is the more 
A profitable for the Drug Trade generally — the sale of 
drugs and medicines in the ordinary or crude forms by 
measure or weight, or in the shape of modern improvements 
in pharmacy as compressed tablets, capsuled pills, &c. 
Any one who has been familiar with the drug trade for, say, 
ten or twenty years past will, we believe, admit that it is now 
a much larger business, and supports and enriches a far 
greater number than formerly. This is undoubtedly owing 
to the multiplied number of drugs and preparations in 
demand, and also to the more varied, elegant, and palatable 
forms in which even the old drugs are prepared, leading to 
their extensive employment by delicate patients who had 
previously rejected them. And more than this : are not the 
increase of business and profits to be still more attributed 
to the fact that drugs prepared so as to be elegant in appear- 
ance and agreeable in taste bring far better prices, and so are 
much more profitable than the same drugs in less desirable 
forms. 
Let us for instance estimate the respective profits on such 
drugs as chlorate of potash or ammonium chloride, or bi-car- 
bonate of potash or soda in crude form, and in the shape 
of the compressed tablets. 
A gross of bottles of the compressed tablets, small or 
medium size, will realise a profit to the retailer of from 
£2 or £3 to £25 sterling, and sometimes more, according to 
prices in different places, whereas the profit on the crude drug 
sold by the pound or ounce would perhaps average as many 
shillings. For a gross of the tablets, small size, contain about 
4 lbs. of drug only, medium size, say 10 lbs. drug. The 
customer or patient is at the same time pleased to get, say 
thirty or sixty doses of medicine for from Is. to 4s., especially 
as it is prepared in a highly-convenient and effective, as 
well as agreeable form. The medical profession and public 
generally are always ready to appreciate and pay well too 
for any real improvements in pharmacy that the trade bring 
to their notice by circular or by showing the goods. 
Of course there are some exceptions in cases of the very poor 
and of those very close-fisted people who go to the leading 
doctors when they are ill and pay a guinea or more for a 
prescription and then grumble at paying three or four 
shillings for as many dozen doses of medicine, no matter how 
well prepared, and want to get cured of the gout for a sixpence. 
Let us also compare the respective profits to the retail 
and wholesale trade on drugs, in the form of the “ McK. & R.” 
Pills, and the same sold by the pound or ounce. The 
wholesale druggists profit of say 10 per cent, or so on a gross 
of bottles of the “McK. & R.” pills at 288s. would be say 25s. 
or 30s., while on the crude drugs of which they are composed 
his average profit would be, perhaps, as many pence. But the 
retailers’ and dispensers’ profit shows a far wider margin, for 
the gross of bottles containing 100 pills each, costing say 2s.or 2s. 
6d. per bottle and retailed or dispensed at from Is. per dozen 
to 3s. per dozen pills, realise a profit of from £45 to £180 
sterling on one gross bottles of pills at the usual retail prices. 
The crude drugs of which the pills are made, sold by the ounce 
or pound at retail would not pay a twentieth part as much 
profit nor give the customer anything like as much satisfaction. 
Both the “McK.&R.” Pills and the Compressed Tablets are now, 
by the aid of elaborate machinery, prepared and sold at such 
reasonable prices to the trade that they are now more profit- 
able to dispense than the old way of making all pills by hand 
by which the delivery of the medicine is delayed and profit- 
able customers are often neglected or lost, while the head dis- 
penser is messing over a prescription for a few pills — a penny- 
wise and pound-foolish policy if a man’s time is worth any- 
thing to his business. 
The Compressed Tablets and the “ McK. & R.” Pills being 
ready for immediate dispensing, much economy of time and 
annoyance of delay to the patient is effected by their employ- 
ment, and on account of their elegant appearance and freedom 
from offensive taste and smell, they are preferred by the 
medical profession, and are readily taken by patients who 
cannot or will not take the same drugs in any other form. In 
the tablets the customer gets 30 doses for say Is. to 2s. 9d. In 
the pills a dozen doses for say 1 s. 6d. to 3s., which is certainly 
very cheap if we consider the quality and style and the skill 
and machinery required in manufacturing. 
The Kepler Extract of Malt may be regarded as a sort of 
addition, and the profit on it a clear gain to the drug trade as 
it is most largely used for the diastase which it contains (the 
starch digesting principle), and which is not permanent in 
isolated form. The Kepler Extract is also much more than a 
substitute for Beer and other malt liquors as a medicine, for its 
nutritive properties are not converted into alcohol by fermenta- 
tion nor its digestive properties destroyed by the heat which 
is always employed in brewing. 
The Kepler Extract is therefore highly appreciated by 
abstainers from alcoholic beverages, but who desire the 
benefit of the digestive tonic and nutritive properties of 
malt. A delicious beverage can be prepared from it by 
mixing a tablespoonful of the Extract with half a glass of 
milk and filling the tumbler with soda water. This is about 
the best way of taking the Extract at mealtimes. 
The Kepler Extract is also largely used where its virtues 
become once known by persons who cannot take or digest 
Cod Liver Oil ; and this remark applies equally to the Kepler 
Extract with Cod Liver Oil, in which the nutritive powers of 
the oil are greatly increased through its minuted subdivision 
and consequent easy digestion. Compare the profit on 
5 gallons Cod Liver Oil at 5s. gall., = 25s., with the profit on 
the same quantity of oil in the form of the Kepler Emulsion 
— viz., profit on 15 dozen Kepler Oil and Extract at 9s. dozen, 
= 135s. — £6 15s. We have high authorities for giving the 
opinion that greater benefit to the patient will usually be 
derived from five pounds of the Kepler Emulsion of Cod Liver 
Oil with Extract of Malt than from twenty-five pounds of 
unemulsified oil ; and even more than this in cases of weak 
digestion which the plain oil is liable to aggravate, but which 
the “Kepler” Emulsion will usually relieve, the Extract of 
Malt being a most valuable aid to digestion as well as perfect 
emulsifying agent for oils. 
The Beef and Iron preparation recommends itself to the 
trade, both on account of its popularity with the medical pro- 
fession and public where it is introduced, but also because it 
is a profitable addition to stock. 
The old way for a patient requiring such a tonic stimulant 
has been for the patient requiring sueh a stimulant to be told 
to stew some beef and soak some rusty nails in wine, or 
perhaps buying the citrate of iron at a profit of a few pence 
or shillings to the chemist, instead of which the chemist now 
supplies a highly approved pharmaceutical preparation at a 
profit per gross of from £3 12s. to £8 8s. 
The trade on Hazeline is being worked up from nothing to 
a good sale and profit, and has effected cures in a variety of 
cases where all other remedies have proved ineffectual. 
One retail chemist assures us that the profit resulting from 
his sale of this elegant Distillate of Witch Hazel is more 
than equal to the rent of his business premises located in 
the principal street of a large town ; and there should be no 
difficulty in any progressive chemists realising a sum equal to 
rent with our full line of new improvements in pharmacy 
at his command ; each of which is capable of a very large 
sale, if merely kept before the attention of the medical pro- 
fession and public. To chemists who will take an interest in 
these goods, illustrated chromo-cards and circulars for free 
distribution, bearing name and address, also samples and 
medical reports will be presented on application to Burroughs, 
Wellcome & Co., Snow Hill, London. 
