Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  i       jne  Patent  Medicine  Problem.  259 
June,  1914.  J 
The  agitation  in  the  next  decennium  was  largely  centered  about 
the  manufacture  of  fluid  extracts  and  the  development  of  proprie- 
tary rights  in  preparations  of  this  type,  and  ten  years  later  we  find 
a  similar  line  of  activity  developing  in  connection  with  elixirs,  which 
at  that  time  were  so  popular.  At  the  end  of  another  decennium, 
however,  the  attention  of  members  of  the  Association  was  again 
directed  to  patent  medicines  of  the  nostrum  type  by  a  resolution 
offered  by  Prof.  A.  B.  Prescott,  of  Ann  Arbor,  to  the  effect  that  a 
committee  of  three  members  be  appointed  to  agree  upon  the  most 
feasible  and  suitable  legislation  to  secure  a  sufficient  statement  of 
the  composition  of  proprietary  medicines,  on  the  package  of  the 
same,  and  the  more  feasible  and  efficient  action  to  be  taken  by  the 
Association  in  regard  to  the  matter.  The  committee  appointed  con- 
sisted of  Albert  B.  Prescott,  Frederick  Hoffmann  and  Charles  Rice. 
This  committee,  at  the  succeeding  meeting  of  the  Association,  pre- 
sented a  lengthy  report  on  the  nature  of  desirable  legislation  regard- 
ing the  manufacture  and  sale  of  proprietary  remedies,  and  also  a 
draft  of  an  act  regulating  the  sale  of  proprietary  medicines.  The 
committee  in  its  report  offered  a  resolution  which  was  subsequently 
adopted  by  the  members  of  the  Association  present,  to  the  effect 
"  that  it  is  the  deliberate  opinion  of  this  Association  that  the  labels 
of  proprietary  medicines  ought  to'  carry  a  statement  of  their  con- 
stituents." {Proc.  Am.  Pharm.  Assoc.,  1885,  v.  33,  pp.  394-398.) 
As  evidence  of  the  need  for  action  along  these  lines  the  committee 
said  in  part: 
"  All  medicines,  and  articles  used  as  such,  concern  the  health  of 
those  who  use  them  and  put  dependence  upon  them.  By  action  or 
failure  of  action,  a  medicine  is  liable  to  prove  hurtful  when  mis- 
applied. Therefore,  it  is  the  right  of  a  purchaser  of  a  medicine  to 
receive  information  of  its  constituents,  their  names  and  propor- 
tional quantities.  And  it  is  a  legitimate  act  of  the  State — so  far  as 
it  deems  expedient — to  see  to  it  that  such  information,  in  printed 
form,  is  placed  upon  each  package  of  articles  of  medicine,  as  a 
condition  of  their  legal  sale. 
"  Moreover,  legislation  requiring  the  composition  of  medicines 
to  be  given  to  the  consumer  is  entirely  in  accord  with  the  spirit  of 
the  institutions  of  the  United  States,  because  it  is  legislation  tending 
to  secure  him  in  the  means  of  self-preservation.  The  purchaser  of 
a  medicine  is  provided  with  a  record  of  its  constituents,  given  in 
terms  defined  by  published  standards:  now  he  may  guide  himself, 
