530 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. [December 31, 1870, 
THE COMPARATIVE EFFICACY OF ANTISEPTICS. 
Dr. F. Grace Calvert has performed two series of ex¬ 
periments in order to ascertain the comparative powers 
of various substances ordinarily used as antiseptics. The 
first consisted in placing in bottles (not corked) solu¬ 
tions of albumen and flour-paste. To these ho added 
various proportions of some of the substances patronized 
at the present time as antiseptics, and the following table 
shows the time in which an offensive odour became sen¬ 
sible at a temperature from 70 to 80 degrees F. 
Antiseptic employed. Per cent, of 
antiseptic. 
M‘DougaH's disinfecting 
Albumen. 
Flour-paste. 
powder.5 
Carbolic disinfecting 
11 days 
25 days 
powder.5 
Sound 
Sound 
Chi or-Alum (made lately) 2 
9 days 
— 
Chloride of zinc ... 2 
15 days 
— 
Chloride of lime ... 5 
16 days 
14 days 
Permanganate of potash 5 
■— 
— 
Tar oil.2 
11 days 
25 days 
Carbolic acid .... 2 
Sound 
Sound 
Cresylic acid .... 2 
Sound 
Sound 
None.— 
5 days 
7 days 
The above table he considers 
clearly to show that the 
only true antiseptics are carbolic and cresylic acids ; and 
these results coincide with those obtained by Mr. William 
Crookes, F.R.S., Dr. Angus Smith, F.R.S., and Dr. 
Sansom. These two acids continued their action till the al¬ 
bumen solution and paste dried up. The second series had 
the object of ascertaining which of the undermentioned 
substances is most active in destroying germs, and preserv¬ 
ing animal substance. At the bottom of wide-mouthed 
pint bottles, Dr. Calvert placed a known quantity of each 
of the antiseptics, suspending over them by a thread a 
piece of sound meat; and, by daily examination, it was 
easily ascertained when the meat became tainted or putrid. 
Antiseptic used. 
Became tainted. 
Putrid. 
Permanganate of potash . . . 
. 2 days 
4 days 
Chlor-Alum. 
. 2 „ 
10 „ 
M‘Dougall’s disinfecting powder 
. 12 „ 
19 „ 
Chloride of lime. 
. 14 „ 
21 „ 
Tar oil. 
. 16 „ 
25 „ 
Chloride of zinc. 
• 19 „ 
Carbolic disinfecting powder. ) Did not become tainted, 
Carbolic acid . . . . . . > but dried up and be- 
Cresylic acid.) came quite hard. 
—British Medical Journal. 
DRUGGISTS’ CHARGES. 
The British Medical Journal , in commenting on this 
subject, makes the following remarks:—A great deal 
is being said just now in various places about the high 
charges of dispensing chemists, for the most part 
very unreasonably, and even mischievously. No one 
pretends to believe that the average income of the 
class of pharmaceutical chemists from their business 
is greater than that of other classes of retailers. It is 
well known to be less than the general average in busi¬ 
nesses demanding a far less onerous training, and in 
which it is by no means so important that a highly in¬ 
structed and conscientious class of men should be em¬ 
ployed, and that they should be conveniently numerous 
and widely dispersed. It is of the first importance that 
the cheap and nasty system should not be encouraged in 
dispensing. Every one knows that he can buy a hat for 
nine shillings in one place, and for twenty-four shillings 
in another. He will not expect to have them of the 
same quality, unless he belong to the deluded race of 
bargain-hunters. A man can put up with a bad hat; 
or he can renew his purchase more frequently; but the 
immediate danger which he will suffer from stale infu¬ 
sions and extemporized makeshifts of the cheaper kinds 
for the most costly pharmacopoeial preparations is not 
so easily estimated or repaired. Lucky if he escape 
without plaster of Paris in his sulphur-, or if he get a 
tithe of quinine in his crystals of quinine and iron. The 
whole question, however, does not lie in that of the use 
of inferior, stale, or adulterated materials. The price 
of a bottle of medicine represents many things besides 
the ingredients : it represents skill, responsibility, cha¬ 
racter, and outward and material guarantees for all 
these. When a physician writes a prescription, the ques¬ 
tion is frequently asked, “Where shall I get it made 
up?” There are two usual ways of answering it; either 
to say, “ Go to any respectable chemist in your neigh¬ 
bourhood;” or, if it be a prescription involving ma¬ 
terials of special novelty, delicacy, or difficulty of perfect 
preparation, to name half-a-dozen establishments well 
known for their perfect arrangements, either of which 
can be selected. Then the importance of what we speak 
of as material guarantees is at once seen. There are in 
every large town some establishments where all the 
arrangements arc obviously made so as to secure per¬ 
fection, irrespective of cost. There are others where the- 
special labours of the pharmaceutical chemist have been 
such as to inspire special confidence in his dispensing. 
These are all things to bo paid for. Many of them are 
costly in themselves; all are valuable to prescribers and 
the public, and have a fair market-value. Druggists in 
poor neighbourhoods must suit their prices to the 
pockets of their customers. They are helped to do so 
by smaller shop-rents, a cheaper way of living, much 
less exigence and expenditure as to the elegancies of dis¬ 
pensing, and by consulting economy in every possible- 
way in laying in their stock, and in the personnel and the 
arrangements of their establishments. With all this, 
they may resist the temptations to actual inferiority;, 
but it is perfectly clear that the more costly arrange¬ 
ments, and the sole regard for perfection of material and 
method, are those things which we seek to secure for our 
patients, and which they have the greatest interest and 
desire to have, where they can afford to pay for them. 
We are not all concerned to defend druggists against 
charges of extortion, or to uphold a system of unduly 
high prices; but we feel assured that the danger lies 
chiefly in the other direction. AVe have more to guard 
against in the interests of effectual prescribing, in the 
interests of healing, and for the security of the public 
and ourselves, in dealing with cheap, than with dear 
druggists. Those medical practitioners who dispense, 
their own medicines will certainly not be the last to. 
recognize the truth of this proposition. Those who pre¬ 
scribe only well know how important it is for their 
patients to fall into the hands of conscientious and well- 
educated dispensers, who have studied their business, 
and charge a fair price, and supply fresh and honestly 
prepared medicines, without that single eye to cheese¬ 
paring which is characteristic of the cutting down sys¬ 
tem in retail businesses. Above all, it is certain that 
the worst evils of counter-practice go always hand in. 
hand with cheap dispensing. If any success should at¬ 
tend an attempt to reduce dispensing to a system on 
which it could yield even smaller profits than it now 
does in the aggregate, the probable results, we think, 
would be greatly to diminish the number of places to 
which we could confidently allow our patients to apply 
for their medicines, and to degrade the practice of phar¬ 
macy to an injuriously low level. This would be both 
inconvenient and disastrous to all concerned. But w o 
do not expect that any success will attend so ill-favoured 
and unreasonable a proposition. 
The Medical Times and Gazette remarks that “ The con¬ 
troversy which has been going on for some time past in the 
pages of two of our contemporaries is amusing, if not in¬ 
structive. One result, however, maybe gathered from it— 
viz. the accusers of pharmaceutists as overchargcrs know 
little or nothing of the matter; and the pharmaceutists 
are unnecessarily irate at a charge brought against them, 
at once unfounded and absurd.” 
