Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  \ 
March,  1900.  J 
Synthetic  Chemicals. 
1 1 1 
to  give  you  to-night  only  a  general  idea  of  the  work  we  have  been 
doing.  Most  of  you  are  doubtless  aware  of  the  marvellous  rapidity 
which  has  marked  the  development  of  the  use  of  this  class  of 
remedies  in  medicine,  and  the  consequent  increase  in  the  variety  of 
different  compounds  discovered  and  manufactured  for  such  use. 
Antipyrin  was'  about  the  first  to  attract  general  attention,  and,  as 
the  patent  on  this  has  recently  expired,  it  will  be  seen  that  all  have 
been  originated  within  the  past  fifteen  years. 
The  contention  over  the  construction  of  the  act,  which  we  have 
previously  described,  affords,  in  itself,  a  further  illustration  of  the 
very  recent  origin  of  the  class,  in  this  way;  the  language  of  Section 
20  of  the  Act,  including  the  phrase  "  uncompounded  chemicals," 
was  taken  almost  word  for  word  from  the  old  War  Revenue  Act, 
the  proprietary  medicine  feature  of  which  was  repealed  in  1883; 
during  the  operation  of  that  Act  no  question  was  ever  raised  as  to 
the  exemption  of  proprietary  medicinal  articles  as  uncompounded 
chemicals,  for  the  very  good  reason  that,  as  we  have  seen,  there 
were  no  chemical  compounds  which  were  patented  or  proprie- 
tary, the  large  class  of  patented  synthetic  chemicals  having  been 
originated  subsequent  to  the  repeal  of  the  law. 
The  extent  and  variety  of  their  present  use  may  be  well  shown 
by  the  size  of  these  reference  books,  Coblentz  and  Thorns,  which  are 
merely  lists  of  the  remedies  in  question,  giving  very  briefly  the 
principal  characteristics  of  each  substance  with  no  extended 
description. 
Coming  now  to  our  work  on  these  chemicals,  the  following  list 
of  medicinal  articles  represents  those  which  have  been  examined, 
and  having  been  found  to  be  definite  chemical  compounds,  are, 
therefore,  uncompounded  chemicals,  and  exempt  from  payment  of 
tax  as  proprietary  remedies  (Treasury  Decisions,  No.  21,875). 
Acid  carbolic  Merck  (phenol) 
Agathin  (salicyl-methyl-phenyl-hydrazone). 
Airol  (bismuth  oxy-iodo-gallate). 
Alumnol  (beta-naphthol-disulphonate  of  aluminum). 
Antifebrin  (acetanilid). 
Antiseptic  crede  (citrate  of  silver). 
Apolysin  (mono-phenetidin  citric  acid). 
Aristol  (di-iodo-dithymol). 
Baking  soda  (bicarbonate  of  soda),  Arm  &  Hammer  brand. 
