36        Eighth  Decennial  Revision  of  the  Cf.S.P.      {  At?ASaryPiS.m' 
several  commercial  preparations  dispensed  in  air-tight  cans,  and 
highly  vaunted  as  antiphlogistics.  It  is  the  duty  of  the  profession 
to  prescribe  these  preparations,  which  have  been  wisely  selected  and 
made  official,  and  thus  render  obsolete  a  number  of  proprietary 
preparations  which  are  filling  the  coffers  of  certain  manufacturers  at 
the  expense  of  the  patient. 
In  the  last  pharmacopoeia  two  Synthetic  Drugs  were  official 
(Acetanilid  and  Salol)  and  eleven  new  ones  have  been  introduced, 
making  a  total  of  thirteen.  Some  of  these  were  formerly  patented 
preparations  upon  which  the  patent  has  expired.  They  are  all  valu- 
able drugs,  but  the  Pharmacopoeial  Committee  erred  in  adopting  the 
chemical  name  as  the  official  name,  as  these  names  are  quite  long 
and  difficult  to  remember  ;  in  fact,  a  number  of  physicians  have  told 
me  that  they  did  not  intend  to  worry  themselves  with  such  names. 
In  the  latest  issue  of  the  Pharmacopoeia,  four  true  Patent  Medicines 
have  been  introduced,  viz.,  phenacetin,  sulphonal,  trional  and  aristol, 
all  of  which  are  largely  used,  notwithstanding  their  expensiveness, 
and  the  patents  on  these  drugs  will  not  expire  until  next  year  for 
two,  and  three  years  hence  for  one.  They  have  all  been  adopted 
under  a  condensed  chemical  name,  which  very  few  physicians  will 
ever  use  ;  the  majority  will  adhere  to  their  patent  name. 
Gentlemen,  we  are  suffering  a  great  injustice  by  paying  such  out- 
rageous prices  for  these  patents  when  they  can  be  purchased  in 
other  countries  for  about  one-third  their  present  price.  Antipyrine 
is  a  good  example  of  the  enormous  profits  in  this  class  of  prepara- 
tions. At  patent  price  antipyrine  cost  $22.40  per  pound  (wholesale), 
now  $3.00,  and  yet  a  reasonable  profit  from  its  manufacture. 
The  same  proportionate  prices  will  apply  to  these  other  drugs 
after  the  patent  expires. 
These  are  true  patent  medicines,  as  by  a  patent  medicine  we  mean 
one  whose  mode  of  preparation  in  detail  is  patented,  and  no  one  but 
the  firm  controlling  these  rights  can  manufacture  the  same  until 
the  patent  expires.  A  patent  medicine  is,  therefore,  a  non-secret 
preparation  ;  in  fact,  opposed  to  the  so-called  "  patent  medicines," 
such  as  Lydia  Pinkham's  Vegetable  Compound,  the  formulae  of 
which  are  secret  and  which  should  be  called  "  secret  nostrums." 
Hence  the  term  "  patent  medicines"  should  not  be  applied  to  them, 
as  any  one  can  readily  see. 
I  do  not  think  that  the  medical  profession  favors  the  adoption  of 
patent  medicines  in  the  Pharmacopoeia. 
