564  Editorial.  { !J ™ 
orders,  provided  they  first  medicate  the  same  in  accordance  with 
any  one  of  the  formulae  recited." 
The  denaturants  permitted  are  carbolic  acid,  formaldehyde,  mer- 
curic chloride,  lysol  and  liquor  cresolis  compound  used  in  the  pro- 
portion and  formulas  given.  In  the  formulation  of  this  modifica- 
tion the  Department  has  taken  the  formulas  given  in  a  prior  stand- 
ing regulation  for  the  denaturing  of  tax-free  alcohol  for  scientific 
purposes  in  medical  schools  and  hospitals,  in  which  it  is  aimed  to 
make  the  alcohol  absolutely  unfit  for  other  purposes  and  in  which 
regulation  "  the  sale  is  prohibited  "  of  such  denatured  alcohol.  Al- 
cohol so  denatured  by  any  of  the  ten  permissible  formulae  is  totally 
unfit  for  the  purposes  for  which  non-beverage  alcohol  is  commonly 
needed,  with  the  possible  exception  of  the  uses  of  the  undertaker. 
We  are  compelled  to  consider  such  regulations  as  inconsistent, 
impracticable  and  absolutely  foreign  to  the  intent  of  Congress. 
Their  purpose  would  to  be  appear  to  make  the  procuring  and  use  of 
non-beverage  alcohol  so  troublesome,  that  many  will  be  deterred 
from  its  legitimate  use  and  compelled  to  purchase  and  use  beverage 
alcohol  at  the  higher  tax  rate. 
Regulations  should  be  bona  fide  efforts  to  carry  out  the  purpose 
and  intent  of  the  law  and  not  mal  fide  attempts  to  demonstrate  ad- 
vance statements  of  a  Department's  inability  or  to  nullify  the  will  of 
Congress. 
A  prime  necessity  of  the  time  is  that  the  trade  interests  and  the 
industries  should  be  maintained  at  their  highest  efficiency  and  built 
up  to  withstand  the  strain  of  unusual  conditions  and  the  burden  of 
increased  taxation.  The  immediate  collection  of  a  revenue  tax  is 
not  the  sole  duty  of  a  department  of  the  government. 
G,  M.  B. 
AN  OLD  TRUTH  REDISCOVERED. 
In  a  recent  issue  our  esteemed  contemporary,  The  Druggists 
Circular,  announced  that  "  the  New  York  City  Health  Department 
had  abandoned  the  Ehrlich  Diazo  test  of  urine  for  typhoid  fever," 
and  declared  this  test  "  to  be  useless  and  of  little  or  no  diagnostic 
value." 
In  an  article  published  in  the  American  Journal  of  Phar- 
macy, November,  1892,  page  559,  the  unreliability  of  this  test  was 
pointed  out  and  it  was  therein  stated  that  "  typical  reactions  were 
