554 
Editorial. 
(Am.  Jour  Pliarm. 
t  November,  lt>94. 
EDITORIAL. 
THE  PATENT  MEDICINE  TRAFFIC. 
The  pharmacist  of  the  present  generation  is  paying  the  penalty  for  the  sins 
of  his  predecessor.  Under  the  stimulus  of  thirty-three  and  sometimes  fifty  per 
cent,  profit  this  unskilled  and  often  uneducated  apothecary  of  several  decades 
ago  recommended  patent  medicines  as  the  readiest  means  of  supplying  the 
demand  frequently  made  by  customers  for  a  remedy  for  this  or  that  ailment. 
In  this  way  he  helped  the  manufacturer  to  introduce  his  remedies,  and  gradu- 
ally educated  a  certain  class  of  the  American  public  to  use  this  form  of  medi- 
cation. 
Now,  the  manufacturer,  by  the  liberal  use  of  printers'  ink,  compels  the 
unwilling  pharmacist  to  hand  out  his  wares  at  no  profit,  but  rather  in  some 
cases  at  a  slight  loss. 
Instead  of  pharmacists  combining  to  maintain  prices,  has  not  the  time  come 
for  them  to  form  a  league  to  discontinue  the  sale  of  patent  medicines  ? 
The  manufacturer  has  always  dreaded  this  action,  and  all  of  his  "plans  for 
relief"  have  been  coupled  with  a  requirement  that  the  pharmacist  should  sell 
just  what  is  called  for. 
It  is  difficult  to  foretell  the  result  of  such  action,  but  it  could  not  injure  the 
pharmacist,  since  his  revenue  from  that  source  has  probably  ceased  forever. 
The  writer  does  not  offer  this  plan  as  entirely  new;  the  suggestion  has  been 
made  before  ;  but  all  other  "plans  "  having  failed,  why  should  not  this  one  be 
adopted  as  the  last  and  only  way  out  of  the  difficulty  ? 
As  it  took  years  to  educate  the  public  to  use  patent  medicines,  so  it  will  take 
years  to  right  that  error. 
The  patent  medicine  is  a  canker  on  the  professions  of  pharmacy  and  medi- 
cine, and  a  curse  to  the  community  at  large. 
THE  AIXOHOI,  TAX. 
It  was  stated  in  the  October  number  of  this  journal  that  the  section  on  com- 
mercial interests  at  the  meeting  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association 
decided  to  advise  against  removal  of  the  tax  on  alcohol,  except  in  those  cases 
where  its  chemical  character  undergoes  a  change,  as  in  the  preparation  of  ether 
and  chloral.  This  unaccountable  action  of  the  section  looks  so  much  like  the 
entering  wedge,  whereby  the  manufacturer  will  get  free  alcohol,  while  the 
pharmacist  will  be  compelled  to  continue  to  carry  the  burden,  that  so  far  as  we 
have  heard,  it  has  met  with  the  universal  disapproval  of  pharmacists  throughout 
the  country. 
At  a  recent  meeting,  held  in  the  Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy,  and 
attended  by  a  number  of  representative  pharmacists  of  the  city  and  vicinity, 
there  was  not  a  voice  heard  in  support  of  the  action  of  the  American  Associa- 
tion. Mr.  Joseph  W.  England  read  a  paper  on  Tax-Free  Alcohol,  which  was 
recently  published  in  the  Alumni  Report,  and  a  committee  was  appointed  to 
take  such  action  as  might  be  necessary  to  secure  justice  to  the  apothecary. 
It  is  obvious  to  all  but  the  dullest  intellects,  that  the  demands  of  justice  can 
only  be  met  by  giving  to  the  smallest  user  of  alcohol,  for  medicinal  and  scien- 
tific purposes,  the  same  privilege  that  is  accorded  the  largest  manufacturer. 
