-^°juiy^^i9'2'o: }    Alcohol:  Its  Relation  to  Science,  Etc.  477 
deter  us  from  defending  our  right  to  use  it  whenever  and  wherever 
the  rules  of  pharmacy  and  chemistry  require.  The  mere  fact  that 
there  are  abuses  in  the  use  of  alcohol,  which  nature,  for  some  in- 
scrutable reason  has  made  intoxicating,  should  no  more  deter  the 
reputable  manufacturer  or  physician  from  employing  it  in  the 
preparation  of  drugs  than  occasional  murders  or  suicides  by  the 
use  of  poisons  should  operate  to  eliminate  all  poisonous  drugs  from 
the  Pharmacopoeia. 
There  are  some  sound  reasons  why  scientific  research  should  be 
directed  toward  the  discovery  of  substitutes  for  alcohol.  High 
cost  is  one  of  them.  This  consideration  alone  is  steadily  operating 
to  reduce  the  amount  of  spirits  employed  in  every  preparation  in 
which  it  is  feasible  to  make  any  reduction  whatever.  Never  before 
in  the  history  of  the  drug  trade  has  it  been  so  difficult  to  obtain  a 
supply  of  alcohol,  and  the  mounting  price  and  difficulty  of  procure- 
ment have  constituted  incentives  that  would  have  stimulated  ex- 
perimentation in  a  much  greater  degree  if  the  prospect  for  the  dis- 
covery of  satisfactory  substitutes  had  been  more  encouraging. 
Every  retail  druggist  will  welcome  the  efforts  made  by  the 
Pharmacopoeial  Committee  to  reduce  the  alcoholic  content  of 
official  preparations.  Any  substantial  reduction  attained  will 
tend  to  curtail  the  cost  of  production  and  to  render  official  prepa- 
rations less  liable  to  be  diverted  by  degenerates  to  beverage  purposes, 
but  the  standards  finally  fixed  by  the  United  States  Pharmacopoeia 
and  National  Formulary  should  be  promptly  accepted  as  irreducible 
minima,  and  pharmacists  the  country  over  should  unite  in  demand- 
ing the  right  not  only  to  employ  alcohol  in  accordance  with  these 
standards,  but  also  to  obtain  an  adequate  supply  with  the  least 
possible  difficulty  and  expense. 
HOUSK-C1.BANING  OF  DRUG  trade;. 
The  retail  drug  trade  may  well  congratulate  itself  upon  the 
splendid  job  of  house-cleaning  it  has  done  in  casting  out  fake  alcoholic 
proprietary  medicines,  in  putting  out  of  business  whiskey  sellers 
thinly  disguised  as  druggists,  and,  more  recently,  in  confining  the 
sale  of  wines  and  liquors  to  strictly  legitimate  purposes.  In  this 
movement  the  retailers  are  now  enjoying  the  hearty  cooperation  of 
the  drug  jobbers  who  appreciate  that  if  the  trade  is  to  be  kept  clean- 
handed the  wholesalers  must  support  the  highest  standard  adopted 
by  the  retailers  and  refuse  to  sell  alcoholic  preparations  to  anyone 
