602  Circular  Letter  to  Pharmacists.  {^d^&^w? 
pharmacists  had  not  expressed  their  opinions,  although,  in  point  of  numbers 
and  legitimate  use  of  alcohol  in  preparing  medicinal  preparations,  they  were 
more  concerned  than  any  other  class  of  manufacturers. 
The  present  tax  on  alcohol,  $[.io  a  proof  gallon,  amounts  to  $2.09  on  every 
gallon  of  95  per  cent,  alcohol,  and  this  represents  in  many  medicinal  prepara- 
tions the  largest  item  of  cost.  According  to  our  best  information,  there  are 
about  40,000  drug  stores  in  the  United  States.  A  very  conservative  estimate, 
it  is  believed,  of  the  amount  of  alcohol  used  by  each  one  annually  in  preparing^ 
medicines,  would  be  two  barrels  of  forty  gallons  each. 
Such  an  allowance  would  indicate  that  the  Government  will  collect  as  a 
tax  from  this  source  during  the  present  year  % 6,688,000.  The  cost  of  our  prepa- 
rations are  thus  artificially  increased  to  this  extent,  necessitating  the  employ, 
meut  of  a  large  amount  of  capital  from  which  no  profit  is  derived. 
During  the  year  1893,  alcohol  was  supplied  to  the  retail  drug  trade  in  Phila- 
delphia  at  an  average  price  of  $2.18,  of  which  amount  but  thirty-nine  cents 
represented  the  cost  of  the  alcohol,  and  $1.79  the  tax  on  each  gallon.  This 
will  give  some  idea  of  the  degree  to  which  medicinal  preparations  have  been 
unjustly  enhanced  in  value  by  the  retention  of  the  high  tax  on  alcohol,  and 
from  this  we  ask  relief. 
We  have  no  solvent  that  will  take  the  place  of  alcohol  in  the  extraction  of 
most  drugs  ;  and  in  the  preparations  into  which  it  enters,  it  becomes  as  much 
a  part  of  the  medicine  as  the  contained  drugs  or  chemicals.  To  no  other 
cause  so  much  as  to  the  high  tax  on  alcohol,  extending  over  a  period  of  more 
than  thirty  years,  can  be  attributed  the  fact  that  the  retail  pharmacist  has  been 
largely  diverted  from  the  true  character  of  his  business. 
The  difficulty  of  recovering  alcohol  used  in  the  manufacture  of  prepara- 
tions on  the  small  scale,  has  rendered  this  part  of  his  calling  no  longer  profit 
able,  as  he  could  not  compete  with  the  large  manufacturer  with  facilities  for 
working  on  an  extensive  scale.  As  a  consequence,  the  manufacturer  has  flour- 
ished, and  deprived  the  retailer  of  a  large  portion  of  his  legitimate  occupation. 
With  tax-free  alcohol  at  thirty-five  to  fifty  cents  a  gallon,  every  pharmacist 
could  economically  and  correctly  prepare  his  own  medicinal  preparations  and 
would  be  responsible  for  their  purity  ;  and  thus  the  public  would  be  protected 
from  fraud.  Tax-free  alcohol  would  undoubtedly  greatly  improve  and  extend 
our  knowledge  of  pharmacy. 
It  is  the  retail  druggist  who  directly  supplies  the  needs  of  the  public,  and 
through  him  it  will  derive  such  benefit  as  will  result  from  the  enforcement  of 
this  act.  Some  manufacturers  have  urged  upon  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
such  a  restrictive  application  of  the  law  as  would  exclude  the  retail  druggist 
from  its  benefits.  This,  the  very  class  through  whom  the  benefits  will  be 
disseminated,  and  whose  claim  from  a  moral  and  economical  standpoint  should 
be  the  strongest,  must  now  assert  themselves,  lest  they  be  entirely  ignored  and 
excluded  from  sharing  in  the  advantages  of  the  act. 
While  the  law  has  been  enacted,  this  particular  section  requires  that  regula- 
tions are  to  be  prescribed  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  and  as  such  regula- 
tions have  not  been  framed,  it  remains  inoperative.  The  reasons  assigned 
for  the  non-enforcement  of  this  section  of  the  act  are  : 
(1)   The  loss  of  revenue  that  would  legitimately  occur  if  the  section  is 
