482  Alcohol:  Its  Relation  to  Science,  Etc.     { ^''Yuiy!'t9^: 
known,  leaving  nothing  behind  them  but  a  smirch  upon  the  good 
name  of  legitimate  industries  and  an  acute  heartache  in  the  Pro- 
hibition Unit.  I  am  glad  to  say  that  these  cases  are  being  most 
carefully  investigated  and  large  numbers  of  permits  will  undoubtedly 
be  cancelled. 
There  are  many  incongruities  in  the  law  and  regulations  that  I 
am  confident  will  be  corrected  in  a  short  time.  For  example,  what 
would  be  more  ridiculous  than  a  rule  which  permits  the  house  physi- 
cian of  a  hotel  to  prescribe  a  pint  of  whiskey  for  a  transient  guest 
staying  perhaps  but  a  night  in  a  place,  but  which  renders  the  guest 
a  criminal,  liable  to  serve  a  term  in  the  penitentiary,  if  he  attempts 
to  take  the  whiskey  with  him  when  leaving  the  hotel,  thus  making 
it  necessary  for  him  to  consume  the  entire  pint  at  a  sitting  to  keep 
out  of  jail.  I  am  glad  to  be  able  to  say  that  the  Bureau  is  now  con- 
sidering the  feasibility  of  authorizing  a  special  label  to  be  attached 
to  containers  of  spirits  regularly  prescribed  by  physicians,  showing 
the  name  and  permanent  address  of  the  patient,  the  name  and 
address  of  the  physician  and  of  the  druggist  from  whom  the  spirits 
were  purchased  and  any  additional  data  that  may  be  deemed  ad- 
visable. Of  course,  it  hardly  need  be  said  that  it  would  be  next  to 
impossible  to  convict  of  a  crime  a  person  who,  having  regularly 
received  a  pint  of  spirits  upon  a  physician's  prescription,  should  be 
detected  in  the  attempt  to  convey  same  from  the  hotel  where  he 
chanced  to  be  stopping  to  his  permanent  home;  nevertheless,  it  is 
important  that  such  a  matter  should  be  provided  for  by  regulation 
and  not  left  to  the  variable  judgments  of  special  agents,  district 
attorneys  and  courts  in  a  hundred  different  jurisdictions. 
Retail  druggists  of  late  have  been  rendered  apprehensive  by 
persistent  reports,  current  for  some  time,  that  the  Prohibition  Com- 
missioner is  preparing  to  issue  an  order  limiting  to  100  gallons  the 
amount  of  alcohol  in  all  forms  they  will  be  permitted  to  procure  in 
any  90-day  period.  These  reports  are  erroneous  though  they  have  a 
basis  in  the  fact  that  the  Commissioner  has  been  giving  considerable 
attention  to  the  problem  of  the  practicability  of  determining  the 
maximum  quantity  of  spirits  which  a  retailer  can  legitimately  use 
in  the  course  of  three  months. 
Up  to  the  time  this  was  written,  no  hard-and-fast  rule  had  been 
adopted  and  there  appear  to  be  sound  reasons  why  it  is  imprac- 
ticable, if  not  impossible,  to  fix  a  limit  that  would  not  work  great 
hardship  if  it  were  made  at  all  restrictive.    For  example,  an  amount 
