442  MINUTES  OF  THE 
to  the  profits  of  the  Pharmaceutist.  There  is  another  view  of  the  matter 
which  he  did  not  take.  I  think,  if  we  let  the  price  of  alcohol  remain  as 
it  is,  we  must  stop  making  fluid  extracts.  We  must  either  stop  making 
these  extracts — for  the  poor  cannot  afford  to  pay  the  price  we  must  ask  for 
them — or  we  must  seek  some  means  of  getting  alcohol  cheaper.  I  sup- 
posed that  our  action  was  to  be  directed  to  this  point,  and  that  some 
method  was  to  be  devised  by  which  the  Pharmaceutist  could  obtain  alcohol 
to  use  in  his  business,  without  being  subject  to  the  taxes,  which  are  pro- 
perly enough  laid  upon  the  consumer  of  the  article,  as  a  beverage.  A 
very  large  proportion  of  the  alcohol  is  used  in  the  form  of  tinctures.  It 
does  not  do  to  say  that  the  apothecary  gets  the  same  profit,  or  that  they 
can  add  the  same  per  centage.  If  we  did,  we  should  charge  fifty  cents 
per  ounce  for  tinctures,  whereas  we  charge  nearly  the  same  price  as  here- 
tofore. We  have  to  meet  a  class  of  customers  who  cannot  afford  to  pay 
present  prices.  The  physicians  have  come  to  prescribing  alcohol  to  a  very 
large  extent.  This  makes  it  additionally  onerous.  I  speak  from  every 
day  experience  in  my  store,  when  I  say  that  the  poor  cannot  afford  to  pay 
the  prices  for  fluid  extracts  which  we  are  compelled  to  charge. 
Dr.  Squibb. — There  is  one  point  connected  with  this  matter  of  the  poor 
to  which  I  wish  to  call  attention.  This  same  class  of  poor,  who  formerly 
earned  but  one  dollar  to  one  dollar  and  a  half  per  day,  now  earn  two  or 
three  dollars  per  day.  The  mechanics,  those  working  in  shops,  whose 
families  are  to  be  medicated,  now  get  three  dollars  and  fifty  cents  per 
day,  where  formerly  they  received  but  two  dollars  per  day.  They  are 
abundantly  able  to  pay  for  the  increased  cost  of  medicines.  They  demand 
additional  wages  for  that.  A  part  of  these  additional  wages  justly 
belong  to  the  apothecary,  and,  through  him,  to  the  Government,  I  have 
some  mechanics  in  my  employ,  whose  wages  have  been  increased  to  three 
and  a  half  per  day,  upon  the  very  ground  that,  as  consumers,  they  must 
pay  these  advanced  prices.  Now,  these  men  do  not,  on  the  average, 
make  more  than  five,  and  often  only  four  days  in  the  week.  They  live 
better  now  to  work  five  days  than  they  did  to  work  six.  The  reason  is, 
because  Mr.  Procter  charges  the  old  prices  for  medicines,  while  they  are 
demanding  increased  wages  under  the  new  order  of  things.  Their  families 
live  well.  Butchers  will  tell  you  that  the  high  cost  of  meats  is  owing  to 
the  fact  that  families  that  formerly  bought  second  and  third  quality 
pieces,  are  now  able,  owing  to  the  increase  of  wages,  to  buy  the  best. 
Nobody  wants  the  second  and  third  pieces.  I  mention  these  facts,  to  show 
that  these  people  are  able  to  pay  for  the  medicines  they  require. 
Mr.  Colcord. — It  is  not  the  apothecary's  business  to  look  after  the 
[pecuniary]  interests  of  the  patient.  That  belongs  to  the  physician.  He 
should  write  recipes  adapted  to  the  means  of  his  patients.  If  he  wants 
to  cheapen  things  for  his  patients,  he  can  write  for  cheaper  remedies 
more  easily  than  the  apothecary  can  give  what  is  ordered  by  the  physician 
at  half  price.  For  instance,  if  senna  infusion  is  wanted,  let  the  physician 
