Am.  Jour.  Pharru.") 
August,  190S.  J 
American  Medical  Association. 
THE  COUNCIL  ON  PHARMACY  AND  CHEMISTRY. 
The  Council  on  Pharmacy  and  Chemistry  has  now  been  actively 
at  work  a  little  over  three  years,  although  considerable  preliminary 
work  was  done  principally  through  the  Section  on  Pharmacology 
and  Therapeutics  of  the  American  Medical  Association. 
Loading  up  the  medical  journals  with  advertisements  for  all  kinds 
of  quack  nostrums  irritated  the  better  informed  physicians  and  caused 
them  to  protest,  which  found  vent  in  the  Section.  Year  after  year 
the  subject  of  nostrums  was  discussed  in  its  various  phases  and  reso- 
lutions adopted  by  the  Section,  until  finally  the  trustees  of  the 
American  Medical  Association  arranged  for  the  formation  of  the 
Council,  and  began  to  prepare  to  throw  out  all  advertising  not  ac- 
ceptable. While  the  work  does  not  make  a  formidable  showing  it 
nevertheless  has  done  wonders  in  these  few  years  and  has  entirely 
changed  the  attitude  of  the  medical  profession  to  proprietary  medi- 
cine. The  physicians,  as  far  as  their  societies  and  authorities  are 
concerned,  are  committed  to  the  reform  of  the  Materia  Medica. 
The  first  public  utterance  after  publication  of  the  announcement 
containing  the  rules,  etc.,  was  the  report  of  the  analyses  of  the 
acetanilide  mixtures.  In  this  was  nothing  new  ;  only  what  every 
pharmacist  knew. 
THE  FIRST  REVELATION. 
But  it  was  startling  information  to  the  physicians.  Having  occa- 
sion to  cross  the  continent  to  attend  the  meeting  of  the  A.M.  A.  in 
Portland,  Ore.,  shortly  after  this  article  had  appeared  in  the  Journal 
and  thus  meeting  a  great  many  medical  men,  the  expose  proving 
these  wonderful  synthetic  coal-tar  derivatives  to  be  nothing  but 
cheap  acetanilide  mixtures  with  alkalies,  was  the  general  theme  of 
conversation  and  was  actually  startling  in  its  effect  on  the  doctors. 
They  felt  that  they  were  the  victims  of  misplaced  confidence,  that 
they  had  been  swindled,  and  that  possibly  they  had  been  the  inno- 
cent cause  of  their  patients'  sufferings. 
STARTLING  CONDITION. 
From  this  time  on  many  similar  articles  were  examined  and 
proved  to  be,  instead  of  definite  compounds,  produced  by  intricate 
reaction  or  synthesized  product  possessing  new  and  often  marvelous 
therapeutic  properties,  simple  mixtures  of  well-known  substances 
without  any  special  value. 
