Am.  Jour.  Pharm  ) 
January,  1907.  ) 
The  Food  and  Drugs  Act. 
9 
in  the  same  manner,  through  the  mails,  and  with  the  aid  of  the 
express  companies,  without  any  medical  or  pharmaceutical  training 
whatever,  without  securing  any  license  or  paying  any  fees,  or  with- 
out being  subjected  to  any  kind  of  an  inspection,  save  in  the  placing 
of  the  names  of  a  few  drugs  upon  his  labels  and  to  refrain  from  mis. 
representation  as  stipulated  by  the  Federal  Act.  In  other  words, 
that  part  of  medicine  and  pharmacy  which  least  needs  a  supervision 
of  the  law  is  practically  the  only  part  which  comes  under  its  super- 
vision,  while  the  unspeakable  abuses  which  attend  the  other  branches 
of  remedies  go  practically  unchecked.  It  is  hoped  that  when 
amendments  are  made  to  the  law  they  will  be  of  a  character  to  at 
least  impose  equally  rigid  inspection  upon  proprietary  remedies. 
My  experience  with  these  remedies  is  purely  of  an  academic  char- 
acter, but  in  the  last  few  months  I  have  had  presented  to  me 
hundreds  of  labels  of  proprietary  remedies  and  also  the  formulas  of 
the  articles.  The  information  submitted  has  brought  out  many 
interesting  features  of  which  I  shall  mention  only  two.  A  large 
majority  of  all  of  the  proprietary  remedies  are  made  by  manufac- 
turing firms  whose  names  appear  nowhere  upon  the  label  and  who 
would  be,  I  am  sure,  heartily  ashamed  to  have  them  there.  Most 
of  these  proprietary  remedies  are  compounds  of  well-known  drugs, 
most  of  which  appear  in  the  U.S. P.  or  N.F.and  doubtless  are  copies 
of  ordinary  prescriptions.  That  first-class  firms  should  lend  their 
influence  or  countenance  to  a  thing  of  this  kind  is  almost  incredible. 
A  few  days  ago  I  read  a  letter  of  consolation  written  by  a  manu- 
facturing firm  to  a  promoter  of  a  great  female  remedy,  so-called,, 
assuring  him  that  the  prescription  or  medicine  which  this  firm 
manufactures  for  him  will  bear  every  test  of  the  Pure  Food  and 
Drugs  Act  and  that  he  need  have  no  fear  in  giving  his  guaranty. 
In  point  of  fact  the  guaranty  should  be  given  by  the  manufacturer 
of  the  remedy  and  not  simply  by  the  seller  and  advertiser  thereof. 
The  prescription  is  simple  enough  and  doubtless  wholly  ethical,  but 
the  use  to  which  it  is  put  is  something  which  transgresses  every  law 
of  ethical  propriety,  whether  it  be  on  the  part  of  the  manufacturer 
who  makes  the  stuff  for  the  profit  or  on  the  dealer  who  advertises  it. 
There  are  many  other'points  which  naturally  present  themselves 
in  connection  with  the  drug  part  of  the  Food  and  Drugs  Act.  I 
need  hardly  assure  this  audience  that  in  so  far  as  the  Department 
of  Agriculture  is  concerned  this  act  will  be  enforced  in  the  letter  of 
