448 
Progress  in  Pharmacy. 
f  Am.  Jour.  PhaiTB. 
\  September,  19M. 
terest  in  the  source  of  their  medicaments  and  are  taking  cognizance 
of  the  part  taken  by  pharmaceutical  manufacturers  in  supplying 
all  customers  regardless  of  the  use  to  which  their  products  may  be 
put. 
An  editorial  in  the  Journal  of  the  American  Medical  Association 
(July  2.  1910.  v.  55,  p.  34)  in  discussing  the  part  taken  by  many 
of  the  larger  manufacturers  in  supplying  ready  to  market  products 
to  defraud  the  sick  says:  "  Legally  they  may  be  within  their  rights 
but  ethically  and  morally  their  course  is  iniquitous,  and  no  amount 
of  argumentative  sophistry  will  justify  the  attitude  of  the  manu- 
facturing pharmacists  who  are  willing  to  sell  their  products  to  any 
who  will  pay  for  them,  no  matter  to  what  use  the  drugs  are  to 
be  put." 
Additional  comments  will  be  found  in  the  same  Journal,  v.  55. 
pp.  40.  418,  613. 
Soothing  Syrups  axd  Retail  Druggists. — A  decidedly 
progressive  step  is  evidenced  by  the  resolutions  recently  adopted 
by  the  Philadelphia  Association  of  Retail  Druggists,  condemning 
so-called  soothing  syrups  containing  morphine  and  cocaine  and 
refusing  to  sell  them.  This  action  has  been  commented  upon  quite 
widely  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  association  will  be  successful 
in  its  efforts  to  induce  the  state  legislature,  at  its  next  session,  to 
eliminate  from  statute  books  the  present  law  which  permits  the 
sale  of  these  drugs,  providing  the  objectionable  ingredients  are 
announced  on  the  labels  (/.  Am.  J\J.  Ass.,  1910,  v.  55,  p.  607). 
Ehrlich-Hata  "  606,"  is  one  of  the  many  designations  that 
have  been  employed  for  the  substance  that  is  creating  unusual 
attention  as  a  possible  specific  for  a  number  of  diseases  that  are 
known  to  be  due  to  spirochetes.  The  new  remedy  promises  to  be 
the  most  valuable  discovery  in  the  field  of  materia  medica  since  the 
introduction  of  diphtheria  antitoxin.  The  substance,  which  chem- 
ically is  said  to  be  dioxydiaminoarsenobenzol  (C12H1202N2As2), 
has  been  selected  from  a  long  list  of  substances  that  have  been 
experimented  with  because  of  their  supposed  or  actual  destructive 
influence  on  spirochetes,  a  class  of  organisms  that  have  been  shown 
to  be  the  causative  factors  in  a  number  of  transmissible  diseases. 
The  reported  results  obtained  are  all  but  marvellous  and  the  lay 
as  well  as  medical  journals  of  Europe  are  filled  with  discussions 
of  the  possible  curative  value  of  the  compound. 
Ehrlich  himself  has  wisely  safeguarded  the  use  of  the  sub- 
