376  American  Medical  Association.  {^milllliS.m' 
able,  because  they  were,  as  a  rule,  fairly  true  to  the  alleged  com- 
position and  were  introduced  under  regular  pharmaceutical  titles 
which  thus  avoided  mystery  and  largely  disarmed  criticism.  One 
of  the  pioneer  manufacturers  affixed  a  label  to  his  preparations  con- 
taining a  statement  to  the  effect  "  that  no  proprietorship  or  exclu- 
sive right  in  its  manufacture  was  claimed,  only  that  the  purest  and 
best  ingredients  were  used  and  that  they  were  carefully  and  skil- 
fully compounded." 
EARLIER  ADVANTAGES. 
These  preparations  had  thus  the  advantage  of  proclaiming  in 
their  titles  their  composition,  which  was  of  great  convenience  to  the 
physician,  and  yet  from  their  technical  and  often  composite  character 
such  knowledge  was  not  easily  acquired  by  the  laity  and  would  have 
been  still  less  so  when  latinized.  They  relied  for  their  preference 
on  being  specified  by  the  maker's  name  and,  of  course,  as  such  were 
of  great  disadvantage  to  the  pharmacist,  who  often  was  required  to 
keep  half  a  score  of  different  brands  of  the  same  preparation  on 
hand. 
THE  PIONEER  SPECIALTY  MANUFACTURER. 
While  a  few  proprietary  preparations,  such  as  "  Iodo  Bromide  of 
Calcium  Compound  "  and  "  Elixir  Peruvian  Bark  and  Protoxide  of 
Iron  "  had  appeared,  it  was  not  until  about  thirty  years  ago  that  a 
peripatetic  preacher  from  North  Carolina  began  in  St.  Louis  to 
exploit  the  doctors  with  certain  specialties  which  were  in  a  category 
different  from  any  former  kind  of  medicines.  He  evidently  appre- 
ciated that  the  medical  practitioners  at  that  time,  especially  in  the 
great  southwestern  country,  were  not  well  prepared  to  write  pre- 
scriptions, that  qualified  pharmacists  were  few  and  far  between  and 
furthermore  that  the  character  of  the  practice  often  required 
the  doctor  to  carry  medicine  with  him.  So  this  genius,  possibly 
with  the  aid  of  the  editor  of  a  certain  medical  journal  which  is  the 
reputed  sponsor  for  the  products  of  this  "  chemists  corporation," 
coined  short  euphonious  and  suggestive  names  for  a  number  of 
preparations  for  which  "  brief"  and  interesting  articles  appeared. 
THE  JOURNAL  COMBINATION. 
These  contributions  to  medical  literature  were  originally  from 
more  or  less  prominent  medical  men  of  "  the  southwestern  metrop- 
