Xmk^ci' i9if  m'}^^ariuac^st  Making  Own  Preparations.  117 
SOME  REASONS  WHY  A  PHARMACIST  SHOULD  MAKE 
HIS  OWN  PREPARATIONS.1 
By  John  F.  McAnulty,  Jr. 
The  question  as  to  whether  a  pharmacist  should  make  his  own 
preparations  or  buy  them  already  made,  will  probably  always  remain 
an  open  one. 
■  There  are  many  good  arguments  that  can  be  advanced  by  either 
side,  but.  after  all  is  said,  the  matter  rests  with  the  individual  case. 
Beyond  doubt,  a  pharmacist  can  make  most  of  his  own  preparations 
more  scientifically,  and  cheaper,  than  the  big  manufacturer.  He 
does  not,  it  is  true,  have  the  same  facility  to  get  up  as  artistic  a 
package,  but  he  has  the  advantage  of  being  able  to  say  he  made  it 
himself. 
There  is  a  good  bit  in  the  knowledge  of  even'  step,  and  ingredient 
used,  in  the  manufacture  of  a  preparation  bearing  your  name.  In 
fact,  it  clinches  your  selling  arguments,  for  a  customer  instinctively 
knows  when  you  are  telling  the  truth  about  a  preparation. 
You  may  assert  all  you  please  about  having  the  goods  made  for 
you  under  your  own  formula,  but  when  your  customer  buys  the  same 
package  with  another  man's  name  inserted  at  the  bottom  of  the  label, 
down  the  street,  your  talk  is  worse  than  useless.  The  confidence  of 
the  customer  in  you  is  killed  forever. 
The  question  of  saving  money  also  counts,  as  money  saved  is 
surely  money  earned. 
Take  a  cough  syrup  like  the  White  Pine  Cough  Syrup  of  the  X.  F. 
for  instance.  Most  every  pharmacist  in  this  State  uses  a  syrup  of 
white  pine  during  the  winter  months.  Many  buy  their  preparation 
already  made  under  the  transparent  argument  of  being  able  to  do  it 
cheaper,  without  the  trouble  and  bother  to  manufacture  and  bottle 
one  of  their  own. 
Do  you  know  that  you  can  make  a  syrup  according  to  the  X.  F. 
formula  for  Syrupus  Pini  Strobi  Compositus,  bottle  it  in  3^2-ounce 
bottles,  label  and  put  in  a  carton  for  five  cents  ?  Can  a  manufacturer 
guarantee  you  an  X.  F.  syrup  for  any  price  near  that? 
This  price  will  hold  good  for  a  small  as  well  as  large  quantity  of 
the  syrup,  and  you  have  the  assurance  of  selling  a  preparation  that 
1  Proc.  N.  J.  Pharm.  Assoc.,  1914,  p.  52. 
