Am.  Jour.  Pharm.") 
December,  1898.  J 
Product  Patents. 
599 
cents  per  ounce,  amounting  in  this  case  to  $2,025,000.  Think  of 
this  from  one  product  alone  !  In  the  case  of  others,  which  did  not 
present  the  possibilities  of  such  extended  use  as  phenacetin,  the 
ratio  of  percentage  profit  was  increased,  sometimes  trebled  or  quad- 
rupled. 
Antipyrin  was  never  as  popular  as  phenacetin,  but  it  is  probable 
that  nearly  as  much  profit  was  obtained  from  the  monopoly  during 
its  life,  as  it  sold  for  $1.35  per  ounce. 
This  then,  is  a  condition  of  affairs  here,  but  how  different  in 
Germany  !  There,  the  financial  increment  has  built  up  numerous 
finely  equipped  laboratories,  with  scores  of  trained  chemists  and 
investigators,  whose  sole  duty  to  the  companies  in  control  is  to  find 
some  new  and  use/id  composition  of  matter  to  patent  in  the  United 
States.  Germany,  undoubtedly  scented  the  possibilities  of  the 
chemical  product  patent  monopoly  first,  and  having  the  finest 
laboratories  of  instruction  at  that  time,  has  greatly  increased  her 
advantages  and  organized  facilities  through  the  aid  of  dollars 
stamped  U.  S. 
It  might  be  asked  "  What  were  our  own  chemists  doing  in  not  tak- 
ing advantage  of  a  condition  of  affairs  which  was  presumably  created 
for  their  benefit  ?"  The  question  is  capable  of  an  answer  which 
proves  them  the  victims  of  ulterior  conditions,  but  for  the  purpose 
of  this  discussion,  it  would  be  too  lengthy  to  consider  'at  this  time. 
There  is  still  another  side  to  this  question,  namely,  its  ethical 
one,  which  has  always  been  a  prominent  factor  in  any  question  in 
which  medicine  and  pharmacy  has  been  involved.  This  factor  has 
been  ably  handled  in  editorials  in  the  Bulletin  of  Pharmacy,  Alumni 
Report,  P.C.P.,  Paint  Oil  and  Drug  Reporter,  and  other  drug 
journals. 
Note. — The  legal  authorities  used  and  quoted  are  Robinson  on 
Patents,  Vol.  I;  Walker  on  Patents,  third  edition,  1895;  Pettit, 
Law  of  invention,  1895. 
Heat  and  Diarrhoea. — Cohn  {Arch./.  Kinderheilk.)  has  studied  the  milk,  the 
bottles,  and  the  artificial  food  of  a  number  of  infants  during  several  years, 
and  finds  that  even  where  the  food  is  in  good  condition  and  unchanged,  as  in 
breast-fed  babies,  the  heat  of  summer  may  disturb  the  digestion  of  infants  in 
some  unknown  way,  and  this  must  be  considered  as  a  factor  in  the  etiology  of 
diarrhoea  in  artificially  fed  children  during  the  summer  months. — Pediatrics, 
1898,  919  ;  from  Am.  Jour.  Obstet. 
