70 
Editorial. 
(Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
\    February,  1920. 
In  the  prior  regulations,  the  pharmacist  was  given  a  choice  of  ten 
formulas  for  the  medication  of  alcohol  for  sale  for  bathing  purposes 
or  as  antiseptics  without  prescription,  in  quantities  of  less  than  one 
pint.  Under  the  new  regulations,  he  becomes  restricted  to  the  use 
of  seven  formulas.  The  two  most  commonly  used  formulas  (car- 
bolic acid  I  part,  alcohol  99  parts ;  and  formaldehyde  i  part,  alcohol 
250  parts)  with  which  physicians  and  patients  had  become  acquainted 
are  now  omitted  from  such  permissible  formulas.  He  must  now  re- 
peatedly explain  why  acts  and  sales  heretofore  made  and  complying 
with  official  orders  are  now  forbidden  by  edict  from  the  same  de- 
partment. Formerly,  he  was  forbidden  the  privilege  of  preparing 
such  medicated  alcohol  in  advance  of  order  and  then  only  in  the  re- 
stricted amount  of  purchase  limited  to  one  pint,  now  the  wholesale 
druggists  may  so  medicate  alcohol  and  sell  this  in  any  amount  to 
holders  of  permits  to  purchase,  including  retail  druggists,  pharma- 
cists, Turkish  bath  establishments,  and  any  person  desiring  to  pro- 
cure such  medicated  alcohol  for  legitimate  external  use  may  obtain 
a  special  permit  to  obtain  same  in  any  quantity  desired. 
T.  D.  2788  denied  the  pharmacist  the  right  to  sell  distilled  spirits 
and  wines  for  internal  use  as  medicine  even  on  a  physician' s  pre- 
scription. T.  D.  2881,  issued  a  few  months  later,  provided  that 
"physicians  may  prescribe  wines  and  liquors  for  internal  use,  or 
alcohol  for  external  use,  but  in  every  such  case  each  prescripition 
shall  be  in  duplicate,  and  both  copies  be  signed  in  the  physican's 
handwriting.  The  quantity  prescribed  for  a  single  patient  at  a  given 
time  shall  not  exceed  i  quart,''  and  declared  "all  prescriptions  shall  in- 
dicate clearly  the  address  of  the  patient,  the  date,  the  condition  or 
illness  of  the  patient  and  the  name  of  the  pharmacist  to  whom  the 
prescription  is  to  be  presented  for  filling."  According  to  the  present 
rulings,  and  the  law,  the  physician  who  has  a  permit  to  prescribe 
liquors  may  prescribe  for  a  patient  under  his  care  not  more  than 
oifie  pint  of  spiritous  liquor  to  be  taken  internally  within  any  period 
of  ten  days  and  he  need  not  state  on  the  prescription  the  condition 
or  ailment  for  which  the  liquor  is  prescribed  nor  the  name  of  a  phar- 
macist who  is  to  dispense  the  prescription.  It  is  thus  seen  that  in  less 
than  one  year's  time  there  have  been  three  different  regulations  pro- 
mulgated as  to  prescriptions,  and  it  is  not  at  all  strange  that  the 
busy  physician  and  pharmacist  should  be  confused  by  these  fre- 
quent changes. 
The  official  form  on  which  the  prescriptions  for  liquors 
must  hereafter  be  written  assign  so  much  space  for  the  data 
