382        Pennsylvania  Pharmaceutical  Association.  {AEiufust,i906!;m' 
you  cannot  attract  customers  unless  you  put  something  attractive 
into  the  windows,  and  advocates  the  idea  of  having  seasonable  dis- 
plays, which  should  be  looked  after  by  the  proprietor  himself,  or 
delegated  to  some  active,  alive,  and  energetic  clerk.  It  is  the  one 
legitimate  method  of  increasing  business,  and  the  natural  outcome 
of  a  careful  study  of  it  will  be  a  better  income,  greater  profits, 
increased  interest  in  business  and  a  more  healthy  atmosphere  about 
the  establishment. 
The  Present  Status  of  Patent  Medicines. 
By  B.  E.  Pritchard. 
The  author  takes  the  subject  of  Query  No.  23,  which  asks 
whether  the  pharmacist  has  sold  his  birthright  for  a  mess  of  pottage 
in  promoting  the  sale  of  proprietaries,  and  answers  it  emphatically 
in  the  negative.  He  admits  that  it  appears  upon  the  surface  that 
overmuch  attention  may  have  been  given,  and  an  undue  amount  of 
energy  expended  in  efforts  to  restore  former  profits  upon  proprietary 
medicines,  but  he  states  that  patent  medicines  are  not  all  bad,  nor 
are  all  proprietors  deserving  of  being  classed  as  brigands  simply 
because  of  the  presence  of  a  few  yellow  streaked  ones  in  their 
ranks.  He  states  that  the  traducers  of  proprietary  medicines  are 
vicious  iconoclasts,  in  that  they  do  not  suggest  anything  to  take 
their  place,  and  in  conclusion  states  his  belief  that  those  who  have 
carried  on  the  crusade  have  taken  up  arms  against  a  sea  of 
imaginary  troubles. 
Patent  Medicine  Agents  or  Prescription  Compounders,  Which  ?- 
By  Franklin  M.  Apple. 
The  author  classes  the  patent  medicine  and  proprietary  manufac- 
turers in  their  relation  to  the  professional  pharmacists,  as  like  unto 
oil  and  water  which  will  not  mix  without  an  emulsifying  agent.  He 
deplores  the  extravagent  claims  made  for  their  wares  by  most  of  the 
manufacturers  of  patent  medicines  and  proprietaries,  and  calls  atten- 
tion to  the  exposure  of  the  magazines,  and  of  the  lay  press  during 
the  past  year.  In  support  of  his  view,  he  quotes  an  editorial  from 
the  Worlds  Work,  entitled  "  The  Patent  Medicine  Muzzle  on  the 
Press,"  and  advocates  missionary  work  in  educating  druggists  and 
doctors  up  to  the  possibilities  in  the  use  of  standard  preparations  of 
the  U.S.P.  and  National  Formulary. 
