Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  ) 
Dee.  1,  1873.  j 
Editorial. 
567 
full  and  explicit.  We  copy  from  it  the  concluding  sentences,  giving  a  summary 
of  the  entire  report : 
1st.  The  name  of  the  medicinal  preparation,  together  with  the  name  of  the 
manufacturer  or  seller  on  the  label,  if  the  preparation  is  officinal,  or  of  pub- 
lished recipe,  will  not  require  a  stamp.  The  formula  of  the  preparation  may 
also  appear  on  the  label  without  necessitating  a  stamp. 
2d.  Mention  of  the  proper  dose  of  a  preparation  on  the  label  will  be  consid- 
ered as  placing  it  in  the  style  or  manner  of  a  proprietary  or  patent  medicine, 
and  a  stamp  will  be  required. 
3d.  A  printed  label  giving  proper  dose,  when  put  upon  a  medicine  dispensed 
across  the  counter,  will  require  a  stamp,  but  the  dispenser  can  write  such  a 
label,  giving  full  directions,  tor  each  individual  sale  without  being  required  to 
stamp  it. 
4th.  Plasters  will  not  require  a  stamp,  being  "  mechanical  appliances"  pro- 
vided they  are  not  of  private  recipe  ;  directions  for  application  of  the  plaster 
not  being  considered  in  the  same  light  as  a  dose  on  a  remedy  for  internal  use. 
5th.  On  gross  packages,  not  intended  for  the  consumer,  the  dose  will  be  per- 
mitted as  information  to  the  dispenser. 
(Signed)  Alexander  H.  Jones, 
Charles  Bullock, 
Committee. 
The  following  correspondence,  between  Hon.  Leonard  Myers,  representative 
of  the  Fourth  Congressional  District  of  Pennsylvania,  and  the  Commissioner 
of  Internal  Revenue,  has  been  placed  at  our  disposal : 
Philadelphia,  Oct.  12,  1873. 
Dear  Sir. — The  druggists  of  this  city  are  in  considerable  trouble  over  your 
letter  of  September  9,  1873,  in  regard  to  the  stamp  duty  on  medicinal  prepara- 
tions. 
The  uncertainty  as  to  what  preparations  are  liable  and  what  exempt  could 
at  any  moment  render  the  best  men  in  this  or  any  community  subject  to  fine 
or  seizure,  I  believe  you  will  agree  with  me  that  the  law  contemplates  no  such 
hardship  and  no  such  uncertainty.  The  13th  section  of  the  Act  of  July  13th, 
1866,  has  not,  until  now,  been  construed  to  impose  duties  in  the  cases  com- 
plained of,  and  I  write  in  the  belief  that  the  labels  and  preparations  submitted 
for  your  opinion  were  not  like  those  which  the  druggists  believe,  and  I  believe, 
not  liable  to  the  tax.  If  we  are  wrong,  then,  just  at  a  time  when  Congress 
was  lightening  the  burthens  of  the  people,  it  has  unintentionally  imposed  upon 
the  suffering  and  the  poor  a  duty  which  was  not  demanded  during  the  pressing 
exigencies  of  the  war. 
I  enclose  six  labels  used  by  my  constituent,  James  Kenworthy,  for  the  pre- 
parations respectively  of  "  Citrate  of  Magnesia,"  "  Paregoric,'  "  Tincture  of 
Chloride  of  Iron,"  "Jamaica  Ginger,"  44  Ipecacuanha"  and  "  Spiced  Syrup  of 
Rhubarb" — all  laid  down  in  the  U.  S.  Dispensatory,  which  he  fears  may  under 
your  ruling  be  liable  to  the  tax,  and  which  in  my  judgment  are  not  so  liable. 
It  is  true,  there  are  directions  on  the  labels  with  some  reference  to  the  quali- 
ties of  the  medicines;  but  none  of  these  preparations  are  new  or  secret  or  Pro- 
prietary or  Patent,  or  alleged  to  have  41  any  special  proprietary  claim  to  merit 
or  to  any  peculiar  advantage  in  mode  of  preparation,"  etc.,  and  therefore  they 
are  not  "  put  up  in  a  style  or  manner  similar  to  that  of  patent  or  proprietary 
medicines  in  general." 
If  these  are  taxable  then  half  the  medicines  which  the  people  must  buy  are 
so  taxable — an  imposition  of  duty  just  the  reverse  of  what  Congress  intended. 
It  would,  indeed,  be  contradictory  if  this  internal  tax  were  levied  or  construed 
to  exist  when  Congress  had  (by  the  Act  of  June  6,  1872),  in  order  to  aid  the 
suffering  poor  as  well  as  to  foster  our  industries,  placed  on  the  free  list  nearly 
