472 
The  Legislative  Year. 
J  Am.  Jour.  Ptaarm. 
X     October.  1903. 
bills  which,  like  the  poor,  are  always  and  eternally  with  us — one 
providing  that  proprietary  medicines  shall  bear  their  working  for- 
mulas upon  the  label,  the  other  permitting  physicians  to  register  as 
pharmacists  without  examination.  Measures  of  the  first  type  were 
introduced  in  six  legislatures,1  and  in  addition  to  these  there  were 
bills  in  different  States  prohibiting 2  the  sale  of  "  patents  "  which 
contain  more  than  one  per  cent,  of  alcohol,  directing 3  that "  patents  " 
which  contain  any  alcohol  whatsoever  shall  state  the  percentage  on 
the  label,  declaring4  that  "  patents"  which  contain  more  than  five 
per  cent,  of  alcohol  shall  be  deemed  alcoholic  beverages  and  sold 
only  by  dealers  who  pay  a  retail  liquor  dealer's  license,  and  prohib- 
iting 5  the  manufacturers  of  "patents"  from  using  portraits  of  per- 
sons in  advertisements  without  their  consent.  Measures  of  the 
second  type,  permitting  the  registration  of  physicians,  were  consid- 
ered by  six  legislatures,6  and  other  efforts  to  let  down  the  bars  were 
made  also  in  five  bills  in  as  many  States,  which  gave  the  privilege 
of  registration  without  examination  to  graduates  of  pharmacy,7  to 
all  pharmacists  who  had  had  five  years'  "  experience  "  prior  to  the 
passage  of  the  original  pharmacy  act8  (1882),  to  eighteen  speci- 
fied individuals,9  to  all  clerks  of  seven  years'  experience,10  and  to 
every  person  who  had  been  engaged  in  the  business  of  dispensing 
pharmacy  on  his  own  account  for  five  years."  11  The  climax  was 
reached  in  a  Connecticut  measure  which  generously  and  philan- 
thropically  suggested  that  the  pharmacy  act  be  suspended  entirely 
for  two  years  !  The  Virginia  bill,  already  mentioned,  was  the  only 
one  of  this  numerous  class  which  became  law,  and  we  should  be 
devoutly  thankful  that  no  others  ran  the  gamut  successfully. 
Numerous  other  measures  inimical  to  the  interests  of  pharmacists 
1  Massachusetts,  Minnesota,  Tennessee,  Washington,  Oregon  and  Pennsyl- 
vania. 
2  Massachusetts. 
3  Minnesota. 
4  Minnesota. 
5  New  York. 
6  Arkansas,  Michigan,  Minnesota,  Kansas,  Wisconsin  and  Massachusetts. 
7  Wisconsin. 
8  Wisconsin. 
9  Kansas. 
10  Nebraska. 
11  Nebraska. 
