AokJo0berPimm'}  National  Association  of  Retail  Druggists.  511 
NATIONAL  ASSOCIATION  OF  RETAIL  DRUGGISTS. 
The  second  annual  meeting  of  the  N.A.R.D.  was  held  in  Detroit, 
Mich.,  September  12-14,  1900.  According  to  the  Pharm.  Era, 
1900,  p.  307,  "  the  Association  makes  no  very  great  departure  from 
its  former  policy,  but  it  reaffirms  with  greater  insistence  its  desires 
and  purposes.  The  various  reports  of  the  officers  and  committees 
show  that  much  has  been  accomplished  during  the  past  year,  and 
these  gentlemen  hold  out  sanguine  hopes  for  the  future." 
The  Committee  on  Trade-marks  and  Patents  reported  through  its 
chairman,  John  C.  Gallagher,  that  they  had  embodied  their  views  of 
the  existing  defects  in  the  present  trade-mark  and  patent  laws  in  a 
paper  which  they  had  forwarded  to  the  members  of  the  Commission 
appointed  by  President  McKinley  to  revise  the  patent  and  trade- 
mark laws  of  the  United  States.  The  substance  of  the  objections 
to  the  present  laws  as  presented  is  as  follows : 
(1)  Of  the  patent  laws  in  that  they  grant  {a)  monopolies  on  the  drug  itself, 
thereby  stifling  invention  and  encouraging  exorbitant  prices  ;  (6)  too  liberal 
concessions  to  foreigners  ;  (c)  their  laxity. 
(2)  Of  the  trade-mark  laws  in  that  they  grant  {a)  trade-marks  on  the  name 
of  the  article. 
(a)  The  present  patent  laws  are  supposed  to  grant  a  limited  monopoly  to  the 
inventor,  as  a  reward  for  the  new  good  that  his  ingenuity  and  labor  have  con- 
ferred on  the  people  at  large;  often  this  reward  is  out  of  proportion  to  the 
deserts  of  the  inventor,  for,  by  granting  letters-patent  on  the  article  itself  and 
not  on  the  process  of  manufacture  only,  we  stifle  the  inventive  energy  of  this 
country,  and  deprive  the  community  of  the  additional  benefit  that  would 
thereby  accrue  by  reason  of  the  cheapness  and  improvement  of  the  article 
itself,  through  the  discovery  of  improved  and  more  economic  methods  of 
manufacturing  ;  hence,  the  monopoly  is  too  extensive  and  stimulation  of  per- 
sonal greed  results  as  opposed  to  the  general  good.  The  classes  and  not  the 
masses  are  directly  and  indirectly  benefited,  exorbitant  prices  are  demanded 
and  exacted.  An  illustration  of  this  fact  maybe  adduced  from  the  well-known 
medicinal  remedy,  antipyrine,  which,  when  under  the  protection  of  our  patent 
laws,  that  throw  too  many  safeguards  around  the  article  instead  of  the  process 
of  manufacture,  retailed  for  $1.50  an  ounce  ;  after  expiration  of  the  patent  the 
same  article  may  be  bought  for  18  cents  an  ounce. 
(b)  Foreign  countries,  vi2.,  Argentine,  Austria,  Belgium,  Bolivia,  Denmark, 
France,  Germany,  Hungary,  Italy,  Japan,  Norway,  Portugal,  Russia,  Sweden, 
Turkey,  Uruguay,  do  not  grant  patents  on  medicinal  preparations  and  chemi- 
cals ;  some  grant  the  patent  on  the  process  only — not  on  the  product ;  surely 
our  country,  which  makes  the  proud  boast  of  encouraging  and  protecting  home 
industry,  should  not  be  less  solicitous  of  its  citizens'  welfare  than  the  countries 
already  enumerated  are.    Some  of  these  countries  compel  the  inventors  as  a 
