Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  ) 
Mar.  1, 1873.  j 
Editorial. 
141 
"  Physicians  are  liable  enough  to  go  on  the  ready-made  clothing  store  prin- 
ciple ;  they  will  take  anything  that  is  compounded  and  save  themselves  the 
trouble  of  compounding  :  but  while  I  am  speaking  of  a  large  class  of  physicians, 
fortunately  there  is  another  class,  and  to  those  pharmacists  would  do  well  to 
address  themselves.  There  are  no  two  patients  whose  conditions  are  right  for 
the  same  preparation  of  these  elixirs,  and  therefore  it  is  really  a  ready-made 
clothing  system  ;  when  you  put  a  definite  portion  of  strychnia,  cinchona  and 
iron  into  a  preparation,  you  foreshadow  a  case  which  requires  exactly  that  pre- 
paration. Some  require  no  iron,  some  a  little  more  strychnia,  some  no  cin- 
chona, and  so  the  physician  puts  a  good  many  shot  into  his  gun,  or  is  induced 
to  do  so  by  drummers,  in  the  hope  of  hitting  something  somewhere.  The  result 
of  this  is,  it  has  become  reduced  to  what  is  a  little  better  than  fashionable  tip- 
pling. It  is  a  fashionable  way  of  getting  stimulants  into  the  stomachs  of  women 
and  children,  and  as  such  it  deserves  the  serious  reprobation  of  this  Associa- 
tion. There  is  no  way  we  can  do  more  good,  and  place  it  in  a  better  position 
with  physicians  and  the  community  at  large,  than  by  setting  our  faces  against 
this  elixir  swindle,  as  it  is  properly  called." 
The  danger  likely  to  result  to  pharmacy  from  the  wholesale  introduction  of 
these  preparations,  was  recognized  at  an  early  day,  and  various  ways  were 
adopted,  individually,  by  the  conscientious  pharmacists,  either  to  avoid  their  dis- 
pensing altogether,  or  to  dissuade  physicians  from  prescribing  preparations 
the  formula  of  which  was  not  made  known  to  such  an  extent  that  they  could 
be  made  alike  by  all  pharmacists.  Several  local  pharmaceutical  societies  then 
took  the  matter  in  hand,  and  published  and  adopted  formularies  for  the  guid- 
ance of  their  members  and  others  who  chose  to  avail  themselves  of  the  infor- 
mation given.  The  formulas  of  these  societies  for  the  same  preparation,  how- 
ever, rarely,  if  ever,  agreed,  and  the  variation  in  the  nature  of  the  products  as 
obtained  from  different  pharmacies,  was  therefore  not  removed.  In  1871,'*  Dr. 
E.  W.  Russell,  of  Baltimore,  suggested  that  the  American  Pharmaceutical  As- 
sociation should  select  and  adopt  the  most  satisfactory  formulas,  either  for 
adoption  in  the  new  pharmacopoeia,  or  to  recommend  their  general  use  by  the 
pharmaceutical  and  medical  professions  throughout  the  country. 
Large  bodies  proverbially  move  slowly,  and  the  subject  being  of  vital  im- 
portance to  two  kindred  professions  of  this  continent,  the  National  Association 
referred  to  Mr.  Robert  J.  Brown,  of  Leavenworth,  the  following  query  :  "  Are 
there  reasons  sufficient  to  warrant  this  Association  in  propounding  formulas 
for  unofficinal  preparations  with  a  view  to  securing  uniformity  in  dispensing?" 
which,  at  the  last  meeting,  was  answered!  in  an  able  paper,  the  concluding  re- 
marks of  which  are  as  follows  : 
"We  believe  the  time  has  come  when  these  preparations  should  be  prepared 
by  every  pharmacist.  If  this  Association  will  take  a  forward  step  in  the  pub- 
lication of  the  best  formulas  that  can  be  obtained,  we  believe  there  are  thou- 
sands of  apothecaries  who  will  throw  aside  A.,  B.  and  C.'s  preparations,  and 
prepare  them  after  the  formulas  propounded  by  this  Association,  rejoicing  that 
they  are  free  from  the  odium  of  dispensing  semi-nostrums,  and  the  American 
Pharmaceutical  Association  will  continue  in  its  good  work  of  disseminating 
useful  information  to  American  pharmacists." 
The  reading  of  this  paper  gave  rise  to  an  interesting  discussion,  from  which 
we  quoted  above  only  a  portion  of  Dr.  Squibb's  remarks,  but  which  touched 
*See  American  Journal  of  Pharmacy,  1871,  p.  381. 
t  Proceedings  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association,  1872,  p.  207. 
