130  Progress  in  Pharmacy.  {AmMJa0rch)^9o«.rm,' 
agents  are  supposed  to  have  made  sundry  concessions  to  better  the 
financial  prospects  of  the  retail  pharmacist,  whereas,  in  reality,  these 
supposed  concessions  have  been  made,  practically  under  compulsion^ 
in  a  frantic  endeavor  to  protect  the  nostrums  themselves. 
Proprietary  Medicine  Label  Bills. — The  most  evident  as  well  as  the 
most  direct  outcome  of  the  present  attacks  on  fraudulent  nostrums 
is  to  be  found  in  the  proprietary  medicine  label  bills,  similar  to  the 
one  enacted  in  North  Dakota  last  year,  that  have  been  introduced 
in  a  number  of  State  Legislatures.  A  bill  of  this  nature,  that  has 
been  introduced  into  the  Legislature  of  the  State  of  New  York,  is 
said  to  have  the  endorsement  of  a  number  of  prominent  citizens  of 
New  York  City  as  well  as  other  sections  of  the  State. 
This  proposed  New  York  law  requires  that  proprietary  or  patent 
medicines  containing  alcohol  or  any  hypnotic,  anesthetic,  analgesic 
or  cardiac,  circulatory,  respiratory  or  nerve  depressant,  have  plainly 
displayed  a  true  statement  of  the  percentage  of  alcohol  and  the 
proportion  of  active  drugs  that  would  properly  come  under  any  one 
of  the  specified  headings. 
This  same  bill  further  provides  for  the  analyses  of  suspicious 
preparations,  and  also  provides  a  series  of  penalties  for  the  violation 
of  any  or  all  of  the  provisions  of  the  proposed  law. 
The  Formula  Bill  proposed  by  Mr.  Bok,  in  the  February  number 
of  The  Ladies'  Home  Journal,  is  much  more  drastic  in  character  and 
provides  that  the  label  of  all  of  the  so-called  patent  medicines  shall 
contain,  in  letters  of  a  specified  size,  a  complete  and  true  schedule 
of  all  of  the  ingredients  and  their  exact  proportions. 
That  considerable  legislation  along  these  lines  may  be  expected 
in  the  course  of  the  next  year  or  two  is  evidenced  by  the  attitude 
that  has  been  assumed  by  the  members  of  the  Proprietary  Associa- 
tion of  America,  who,  at  their  semi-annual  meeting,  in  New  York, 
last  December,  resolved  that  their  legislative  committee  be  instructed 
"■  to  advocate  legislation  which  shall  prevent  the  use  of  alcohol  in 
proprietary  medicines  for  internal  use,  in  excess  of  the  amount 
necessary  as  a  solvent  and  preservative."  The  legislative  committee 
was  further  instructed  to  continue  their  efforts  in  behalf  of  legisla- 
tion to  restrict  and  to  control  the  sale  of  cocaine  and  of  other  nar- 
cotics and  poisons  or  medicinal  preparations  containing  the  same. 
With  the  manufacturers  of  proprietary  medicines  themselves 
arrayed  in  favor  of  this  particular  type  of  legislation  it  would  be 
