206 
Editorial. 
(  Am.  Jour.Pharm. 
t     April,  1882. 
People  are  bent  on  using  put-up  medicines.  Well,  humor  them!  Give 
them  what  they  want!  Let  them,  instead  of  concoctions,  the  composition 
-of  which  everybody  ignores — even  the  makers — let  them  get  medicines  put 
up  by  conscientious  men  (for  instance,  the  pharmacists  themselves),  and 
having  the  formula  stated  in  full  on  the  label.  In  this  way  you  fight, 
and  will  ultimately  defeat,  the  patent  medicine  swindle,  with  its  own 
weapons.  When  you  have  succeeded  in  breaking  the  back  of  the  jiatent 
pest  in  this  way  (b^^  making  it  unprofitable),  then  you  and  the  physicians 
oan  turn  your  attention  to  your  late  ally,  and  modify  the  formulas  and 
directions  so  as  to  keep  both  within  safe  bounds. 
Preaching  is  very  well,  but  we  have  to  deal  with  human  nature  as  it  is, 
not  as  it  ought  to  be.    People  want  to  take  something  ! 
Respectfully  yours,  Hans  M.  Wilder. 
Detroit,  February  25,  1882. 
The  editor's  views  do  not  differ  to  a  very  great  extent  from  those 
expressed  by  our  correspondent,  as  will  be  readily  seen  by  the  numerous 
editorial  remarks  printed  in  former  volumes  of  the  Journal,,  Informa- 
tion on  health  matters  is,  in  our  opinion,  not  disregarded  by  intelligent 
persons;  to  ignorant  or  prejudiced  people  argumentation  is  of  little  or  no 
avail.  Yet,  because  there  are  many  of  the  latter  kind,  should  the  former 
class  be  left  to  drift  along  among  the  many  secret  medicines  that  flood 
the  market  everywhere?  This  question  is  intimately  connected  with 
that  relating  to  the  composition  of  the  nostrums  and  the  danger  arising 
from  the  indiscriminate  use  of  poisonous  compounds.  Nearly  all  the 
States  have  enacted  laws  regulating  the  sale  of  poisons;  yet,  under  the 
garb  of  patent  medicine,  poisons  in  dangerous  quantities  may  be  and  are 
sold  to  the  most  ignorant,  and  not  unfrequently  shorten  the  life  of  the 
over-contiding.  Such  cases  have  been  often  cited  in  medical  and  pharma- 
ceutical journals,  and  at  the  preseut  time  a  case  is  being  investigated  before 
the  Coroner  of  Philadelphia,  where  an  infant,  attacked  with  croup,  died 
of  the  effects  of  a  dose  of  a  nostrum,  a  so-called  cough  syrup,  which  is 
said  to  contain  a  powerful  narcotic.  If  the  composition  of  such  concoc- 
tions was  known,  if  manufacturers  were  compelled  to  divulge  the  compo- 
sition of  the  nostrums  by  printing  the  correct  ingredients  upon  the  labels, 
the  harm  that  would  be  done  by  them  would  be  greatly  lessened,  and 
under  the  poison  laws  of  the  different  States  many  of  the  so-called  popu- 
lar medicines  could  then  not  be  indiseriminately  sold,  and  would  doubt- 
less be  rejilaced  by  preparations  made  according  to  authorized  formulas ; 
such  a  course  we  have  always  held  "  to  be  the  only  rational  one  calculated 
to  be  an  entering  wedge  for  the  suppression  of  nostrum  quackery  "  ("Am. 
Jour.  Phar.,"  1874,  p.  90). 
Medicine  and  Pharmacy  have  as  one  of  their  main  objects  the  preserva- 
tion of  health  and  life,  and  it  is  strange,  indeed,  that  a  united  move  of  the 
two  professions  has  not  yet  been  made  in  the  correction  of  an  acknowl- 
edged evil.  Household  medicines,  to  be  of  practical  usefulness,  should  be 
adapted  to  the  wants  of  the  different  localities,  and  both  physicians  and 
pharmacists  would,  in  our  opinion,  only  consult  and  advance  their  own 
interests,  if  they  were  to  promote  the  interests  of  the  public  by  pointing 
out  the  manner  of  preserving  the  health,  and  offering  the  means  of  allevi- 
ating slight  indispositions,  for  which  the  large  majority  of  the  people 
