Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  ) 
December,  1914.  j 
Pure  Drugs  and  the  Public  Health. 
557 
by  the  constituents  of  the  air,  by  ferments,  or  by  microorganisms, 
some  recent  observations  by  Neuberg,  of  Berlin,  suggest  that  nearly 
all  types  of  organic  compounds  acquire  a  pronounced  photosensitive- 
ness  when  they  are  mixed  with  inorganic  compounds.  Iron  salts,  it  is 
said,  provoke  such  changes  most  strikingly,  and  it  is  quite  possible 
that  otherwise  innocuous  materials  may  thus  be  converted,  in  part  at 
least,  into  decidedly  harmful  compounds. 
In  addition  to  this  possible  deterioration  of  medicaments,  which 
can  be  averted,  to  a  considerable  degree  at  least,  by  constant  care  and 
watchfulness,  there  are  a  number  of  other  factors  that  should  be 
taken  into  consideration  in  connection  with  the  dispensing  of  medi- 
cines to  the  consumer.  Not  the  least  important  of  these  several 
factors  is  the  accuracy  and  also  the  sensitiveness  of  scales,  weights 
and  measures.  On  page  43  of  Hygienic  Laboratory  Bulletin  No.  93 
will  be  found  several  references  that  bear  out  this  assertion.  One 
observer  found  that  not  one  of  36  graduates  examined  was  correct. 
Some  were  better  than  others,  but  all  were  bad.  In  the  State  of 
Kansas  nearly  one-half  of  the  prescription  weights  examined  were 
condemned,  and  of  the  718  prescription  scales  examined  195  were 
found  to  be  unfit  for  use. 
The  inability  or  unwillingness  of  retail  druggists  to  assume  proper 
responsibility  is  further  evidenced  by  the  recommendation  of  one 
man  to  use  ready-made  tablets  in  place  of  weighing  out  small  quan- 
tities of  potent  drugs.  The  fallacy  of  this  advice  has  more  latterly 
been  emphasized  by  the  fact  that  compressed  as  well  as  other  tablets, 
even  under  most  favorable  conditions,  may  vary  from  10  to  30  per 
cent,  from  the  quantities  claimed.  Under  conditions  not  so  favor- 
able even  greater  variations  have  been  observed,  and  in  cases  where 
tablets  have  been  made  to  sell  at  inordinately  low  prices  it  has  been 
found  that  expensive  chemicals  were  present  only  in  traces  sufficient 
to  give  qualitative  tests. 
In  conclusion  it  may  be  reiterated  that  the  more  evident  short- 
coming in  the  present-day  enforcement  of  pure-drugs  laws  is  the 
general  failure  to  properly  place  the  responsibility  for  the  nature, 
kind,  and  purity  of  the  medicines  supplied  to  the  consumer  where  it 
belongs.  This  shortcoming  is  being  corrected,  to  some  extent  at 
least,  by  recently  enacted  laws  to  regulate  the  practice  of  pharmacy 
by  placing  the  responsibility  squarely  on  the  person  dispensing  the 
drug. 
The  proper  enforcement  of  laws  designed  to  regulate  the  practice 
