^oVS^vS'}     Pharmacy  and  Medicine  in  Egypt.  513 
fixtures  and  showcases.  The  rentals  are  very  high,  and  vary  from 
$600  to  $4000  a  year,  depending  upon  the  locality  and  the  reputation 
of  the  place.  Pharmacists  in  Egypt  are  friendly  and  competition  is 
not  so  great,  because  the  government  limits  the  number  of  shops  and 
each  one  of  them  has  work  enough  to  keep  him  busy.  The  Egyptian 
pharmacist  is  well  trained  when  it  comes  to  the  business  side  of  his 
profession.  He  has  a  pleasing  personality,  and  is  polite  to  customers, 
but  I  regret  to  say  that  he  never  depends  on  himself  to  manufacture 
his  preparations.  He  is  of  the  class  that  would  rather  read  a  story 
than  run  a  percolate,  and  it  makes  no  difference  to  him  if  he  adver- 
tises the  preparations  of  a  wholesale  house  more  than  his  own.  He 
rarely  takes  advantage  of  the  opportunity  offered  of  making  his  own 
preparations,  of  course,  which  would  pay  him  well,  since  no  large  duty 
is  charged  on  alcohol.  There  is  very  small  tax  on  spirits  even  when 
used  for  domestic  use,  if  not  denatured. 
Practice  of  Pharmacy. — The  practice  of  pharmacy  in  Egypt 
is  a  very  difficult  task  indeed,  as  there  is  no  official  pharmacopoeia  for 
the  country.  The  majority  of  the  physicians  are  educated  in  foreign 
countries  and  naturally  prescribe  the  preparations  they  have  studied 
in  their  medical  schools.  The  pharmacist  must  always  be  alert,  and 
before  dispensing  a  prescription  he  has  to  satisfy  his  conscience  that 
he  is  dispensing  the  required  preparation. 
Before  the  standardization  of  poisonous  drugs  and  preparations  at 
the  Brussels  Congress,  in  1902,  the  mistakes  of  pharmacists  were 
sometimes  fatal,  since  the  difference  in  strength  was  enough  to  cause 
serious  results. 
Tincture  of  cantharidis 
U.S.  P.  and  F.  P...  iogm.  in  100  Cc. 
B.  P   10  gm.  in  800  Cc. 
Tincture  of  strophanthus 
U.  S.  P   10  gm.  in  100  Cc. 
B.  P   10  gm.  in  400  Cc. 
F.  P   10  gm.  in  60  Cc. 
Other  preparations  also  vary  in  composition  or  color.  Solution 
of  potassium  arsenite  of  the  F.  P.  is  of  a  bright  yellow  color,  and  con- 
tains in  addition  to  potassium  arsenite,  Alcoolat  de  Melisse  Com- 
pose and  alcohol  900  C.  instead  of  compound  tincture  of  lavender. 
Hoffman's  anodyne  of  the  F.  P.  consists  of  the  simple  spirit  of 
ether,  while  the  U.  S.  P.  and  B.  P.  contains  also  etherial  oil. 
Prescriptions  are  written  mostly  in  Latin ;  very  rarely  in  English, 
French,  Italian,  Greek,  or  Arabic.  The  directions  are  generally 
written  in  English,  French,  or  the  spoken  language,  the  Arabic,  so 
