ANdvembef,hi90i'}        Recognition  of  Synthetic  Chemicals.  557 
in  the  statistics  published  by  the  United  States  Treasury  Depart- 
ment. According  to  the  list  of  Imports  for  Consumption,  the  value 
of  the  imported  chemical  in  1899  was  $7,616  ;  in  1900  it  was  $3,893, 
and  in  1901  this  had  further  decreased  to  $1,125.  This  is  further 
corroborated  by  personal  experience  and  inquiry  among  a  number 
of  pharmacists,  all  of  whom  had  noticed  the  gradual  but  certain 
disappearance  of  the  popularity  of  this  remedy. 
Another  interesting  fact  with  this  particular  drug,  as  with  many 
of  the  imported  chemicals,  is  that  the  actual  value,  sworn  to  by  the 
importers,  is  but  a  fraction  of  the  price  charged  the  consumer  in 
this  country.  This  difference,  however,  cannot  by  any  means  be 
considered  as  profit,  as  a  very  large  amount  of  it  is  expended  in  the 
liberal  advertising  mentioned  above. 
Another  point  of  view  of  the  artificial  demand  that  is  created  for 
many  new  chemicals  by  means  of  skilful  advertising  may  be  had 
by  comparing  the  usefulness  of  any  of  the  trade-marked  chemicals 
with  the  official  drugs  and  chemicals,  notably  acetanilid  and  salicylic 
acid.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  there  is  not  a  single  patented  chemical 
on  the  market  at  the  present  time  that  promises  to  stand  the  test 
of  time  for  applicability  and  usefulness  so  well  as  these  two  drugs ; 
but,  despite  this  fact,  a  pound  of  either  of  these  chemicals  may  be 
purchased  for  less  than  we  can  get  an  ounce  of  a  trade-marked  and 
patented  coal-tar  chemical. 
There  is  one  other  phase  of  this  question  that  should  not  be  over- 
looked, and  that  is  the  possibility  of  professional  debasement  by 
the  monetary  consideration.  In  speaking  of  the  introduction  of  a 
new  remedy,  we  referred  to  the  manufacturer  supplying  the  physi- 
cian with  samples,  with  a  view  of  having  the  physiological  action 
of  the  new  compound  tested  in  actual  practice,  and  incidentally 
having  a  source  of  reference  articles  on  which  to  base  his  future 
advertising.  While  this  in  itself  is  perhaps  not  above  reproach,  the 
offer  that  has  been  made  by  several  manufacturers  to  compensate 
the  physican  for  the  time  he  must  necessarily  give  to  following  out 
these  experiments  and  writing  the  necessary  articles,  is,  to  say  the 
least,  offering  something  in  the  nature  of  a  bribe. 
It  is  probable,  of  course,  that  so  far  none  of  these  offers  have 
been  seriously  considered,  and  certainly  none  have  been  accepted ; 
for  who  has  ever  seen  a  signed  article  in  which  the  author  admits 
that  the  time  he  has  devoted  to  writing  it  has  been  paid  for  by  the 
