Ajanua?yPi907m'}     Work  of  the  Council  on  Pharmacy,  25 
Patent,  was  submitted,  describing  in  detail  the  method  of  manufac- 
ture of  a  product,  which,  on  analysis,  proved  to  be  simply  a  mixture 
of  well  known  ingredients,  in  which  mixture  the  reactions  of  the 
patent  had  certainly  never  taken  place,  yet  it  was  sold  and  is  being 
sold  as  a  definite  synthetic,  with  appropriate  name  and  chemical 
formula  on  the  label. 
Illustrations  of  the  fake  synthetics  put  out  in  this  country  may 
also  be  found  in  the  last  number  of  the  Journal  of  the  American 
Medical  Association ,  page  1500,  in  which  not  only  is  the  claim  made 
that  the  substances  sold  are  definite  synthetics,  but  definite  and 
exact  chemical  formulas  are  given  for  the  same,  in  one  case  accom- 
panied by  a  most  picturesque  and  perfectly  impossible  graphic 
formula  in  addition. 
If  this  represents  the  state  of  things  that  existed  with  reference 
to  substances  claimed  to  be  synthetics,  what  was  it  when  we  came 
to  proprietary  mixtures  with  trade-marked  word-names,  and  abso- 
lute secrecy  as  to  composition,  this  secrecy  being  defended  on  the 
ground  that  valuable  proprietary  rights  might  be  infringed  if  the 
public  were  told  the  exact  composition  ?  It  is  hardly  necessary  to 
ask  the  question  as  to  where  this  kind  of  a  thing  leaves  the  doctor. 
The  proprietors  of  the  remedy  may  change  the  composition  from 
time  to  time,  and  in  some  cases  they  boldly  acknowledge  that  the 
composition  of  the  remedy  has  been  changed,  with  no  word  of  in- 
formation as  to  strength  or  exact  proportion  of  the  ingredients,  and 
in  many  cases  with  absolute  falsity  of  statement  as  to  ingredients 
present. 
With  this  general  survey,  therefore,  of  the  conditions  that  existed 
up  to  the  time  the  Council  was  formed,  it  will  be  seen  that  there 
was  the  greatest  need  for  improvement,  and  that  the  physician,  in 
self-defence,  was  obliged  to  ask  for  some  help  in  this  matter. 
Shortly  after  the  organization  of  the  Council  on  Pharmacy  and 
Chemistry,  and  possibly  in  part  antedating  its  organization,  came 
the  popular  outside  efforts  at  reform  in  the  matter  of  medicines,  of 
which  the  best-known  examples  were  the  publications  of  the  Ladies' 
Home  Journal,  and  later  of  Collier's  Weekly.  The  work  of  Mr. 
Adams  in  this  latter  journal  was  certainly  very  effective  in  opening 
the  eyes  of  the  public  to  the  condition  of  things  with  regard  to 
many  of  the  so-called  "  Proprietaries."  It  is  true  that  these  Collier 's 
Weekly  articles  only  attempted  to  deal  with  the  worst  of  these  pro- 
