218 
Editorial. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
April,  1897. 
GET  WHAT  YOU  ASK  FOR. 
Certain  Druggists  Who  Bring  Reproach 
Upon  Their  Business  by  the  Practice  of 
PalmiDg  Off  "  Substitutes  "  on  the  Public. 
When  a  person  goes  to  a  drug  store  for  a 
standard  remedy  and  the  druggist  tries  to  palm 
off  some  other  preparation  of  a  pretended  simi- 
lar nature,  urging  the  customer  to  buy  the  latter 
concoction  on  the  plea  that  "  it  is  just  as  good  " 
or  "really  better"  than  the  standard  remedy 
called  for,  it  is  proper  to  avoid  that  drug  store 
ever  afterwards. 
The  profit  to  the  druggist  on  the  standard 
preparations  is  not  large.  The  few  remedies 
that  the  whole  world  recognizes  as  meritorious 
are  prepared  by  able  physicians  and  chemists, 
with  every  facility  of  modern  science  at  their 
command,  from  the  formulas  of  the  most  learned 
physicians  that  this  generation  has  produced. 
A  tremendous  amount  of  capital  is  invested  in 
the  laboratories  where  these  remedies  are  made. 
They  have  gained  their  reputations  by  the  great 
good  they  have  done  in  curing  disease  and  reliev- 
ing pain.  It  costs  a  great  deal  to  keep  up  their 
necessary  excellence. 
The  unscrupulous  and  generally  ignorant  drug- 
gist referred  to  sees  a  chance  to  make  a  big  profit 
by  mixing  together  a  number  of  cheap  ingredi- 
ents, giving  the  mixture  a  name,  and  taking  ad- 
vantage of.  the  gullibility  of  some  people,  who 
seem  to  like  to  experiment  with  their  health. 
These  preparations  are  frauds,  and  are  never 
advertised,  because  they  will  not  bear  the  light 
of  any  public  investigation. 
This  appeared  as  reading  matter  in  the  Philadelphia  Public  Ledger,  and 
claimed  to  have  been  taken  from  the  Boston  Globe. 
What  is  the  "  standard  remedy  "  spoken  of? 
Evidently,  from  what  follows,  it  is  one  which  has  been  advertised. 
When  a  customer  asks  for  one  of  these  so-called  standard  remedies,  the 
pharmacist  will  not  go  far  astray  if  he  undertakes  a  little  missionary  work,  and 
either  sends  the  patient  to  a  physician  or  supplies  him  (after  due  recommenda- 
tion) with  a  standard  preparation  of  his  own  manufacture,  which,  perhaps,  has 
not  been  so  extensively  advertised,  but  which  has  real  merit.  The  editor  who 
admits  such  "stuff"  and  calls  it  reading  matter  should  be  waited  on  by  the 
druggists  of  his  locality  and  be  enlightened  as  to  the  real  facts  of  the  case. 
Such  notices  have  appeared  quite  frequently  of  late,  and,  no  doubt,  will  con- 
tinue to  appear  unless  some  active  measures  are  taken  by  pharmacists.  They 
indicate  the  desperate  efforts  of  the  nostrum  manufacturers  to  neutralize  the 
warfare  which  is  being  waged  by  druggists  in  nearly  every  part  of  the  country 
against  the  patent  medicine  ;  but  sooner  or  later  the  persistent  aggressiveness 
of  the  40,000  druggists  in  the  United  States  will  win.  It  is  nonsense  to  talk  of 
going  back  to  the  day  of  33  or  50  per  cent,  profits  on  "  patents,"  nothing  moves 
that  way  in  this  world,  the  process  of  evolution  is  seen  in  everything,  and  this 
