AmAp°rn;iP907a.rm'}      Well  Known  Synthetic  Chemicals.  165 
attitude.  It  should  furthermore  be  noted  that  it  seems  necessary  to 
include  certain  chemicals  in  order  to  avoid  technicalities ;  for 
example,  it  is  held  by  one  chemist  that  a  certain  chemical  could  not 
be  considered  a  derivative  of  alcohol  because  ethyl  bromide  is  not 
enumerated  as  a  derivative  of  alcohol  in  the  regulations,  and  inas- 
much as  this  chemical  is  employed  directly  in  introducing  the  ethyl 
group  into  the  product,  it  is  necessary  that  this  product  be  included 
as  a  derivative  of  alcohol.  The  contention  that  certain  ingredients 
are  not  used  as  habit-producing  drugs  is  not  well  taken.  This  claim 
is  made  for  ether,  which,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  is  used  to 
fortify  beverages  in  order  to  render  intoxication  more  rapid  and 
complete ;  particularly  is  this  the  case  where  parties  are  addicted  to 
the  alcohol  habit  and  the  ordinary  beverage  does  not  appear  to 
satisfy  the  appetite  of  the  consumer. 
The  morphine  group  presents  some  interesting  features.  It  is 
well  known  that  morphine  and  opium,  and  the  disastrous  results  of 
same,  have  been  widely  exploited  during  the  past  few  years,  not  only 
in  the  lay  journals  but  also  to  some  extent  in  the  public  press. 
Many  manufacturers  deem  it  expedient  to  remove  these  words  from 
their  labels  if  possible  because  of  this  unfavorable  notoriety.  The 
result  is  that  these  ingredients  have,  in  many  instances,  been 
replaced  with  other  products  which  are  not  so  well  known  to  the 
public  ;  for  example,  heroin,  codeine  and  dionine  have  replaced  mor- 
phine in  a  considerable  number  of  cases.  These  chemicals  are  at 
present  supposed  not  to  produce  as  deleterious  results  on  the  human 
system  as  do  opium  and  morphine  even  when  used  over  extended 
periods,  but  what  the  future  will  bring  forth  by  their  promiscuous 
and  indiscriminate  use,  is  difficult  at  present  even  to  conjecture.  It 
is  even  now  reported  that  where  narcotic  laws  prohibit  the  indis- 
criminate sale  of  morphine  and  no  restrictions  whatever  are  placed 
upon  the  sale  of  codeine,  that  the  latter  product  is  being  used  in 
place  of  the  former. 
What  has  been  said  above  in  connection  with  the  opium-morphine 
group  applies  equally  to  the  acetanilide  group.  At  the  time  the 
Pure  Food  and  Drugs  Act  was  passed  there  were  approximately  500 
headache  and  laxative  preparations  sold  through  the  jobbing  trade 
under  various  names  which  contained  acetanilide.  It  is  a  significant 
fact  that  the  acetanilide  in  many  of  these  preparations  has  been 
replaced  by  acetphenetidin  (phenacetine),  and  we  are  also  informed, 
