380 
Editorial. 
(  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
t     Aug.  1,1871. 
The  annual  report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Internal  Revenue  on  the  opera- 
tions of  the  internal  revenue  system  for  the  year  1870,  made  by  Hon.  C.  Delano, 
Commissioner,  to  Hon.  Geo.  L.  Boutwell,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  contains, 
on  page  14,  the  following: 
"The  repeal  of  the  special  tax  upon  apothecaries  takes  effect  May  1,  1871. 
After  that  time  they  mast  either  abandon  the  dispensing  and  sale  of  wines  and 
spirits  officinal,  upon  physicians'  prescriptions  or  otherwise,  or  pay  special 
taxes  as  liquor  dealers,  unless  there  shall  be  additional  legislation  upon  the 
subject.  So  far  as  they  are  concerned,  the  act  of  July  14,  1870  increases  the 
taxes." 
It  will  be  seen  from  this  extract,  that  the  attention  of  Congress  has  been 
drawn  to  this  subject  last  year  by  Mr.  Delano.  We  have  not  read  General 
Pleasonton's  remonstrance;  but,  notwithstanding  these  two  official  hints  given 
to  Congress  proved  unavailing,  we  still  beg  leave  to  differ  from  the  Honorable 
Commissioner,  andadhere  to  our  doubts  in  regard  to  the  intention  of  Con- 
gress to  impose  the  liquor  dealers'  special  tax  upon  apothecaries.  We  believe 
that  the  last  internal  revenue  law  was  made  to  reduce  taxation,  and  it  is  natu- 
ral enough  to  suppose  that  apothecaries  were  intended  to  be  relieved  from  the 
special  tax  in  common  with  physicians,  storekeepers  and  others;  hence,  in  our 
opinion,  it  was  merely  an  unintentional  oversight  of  Congress  not  to  have  incor- 
porated the  exemption  clause  of  the  old  into  the  new  law. 
According  to  the  decision  of  the  Internal  Revenue  OfRce,  apothecaries  may 
use  liquors  in  making  all  the  compounds  legitimately  required  in  their  business, 
without  thereby  becoming  liquor  dealers,  provided  the  liquors  so  used  lose  their 
identity.  To  dispense  medicines  upon  physicians'  prescriptions  is  certainly  a 
legitimate  occupation  of  the  apothecary.  Spir.  Yini  Gallici  is  certainly  a  legi- 
timate medicine.  But  if  the  physician  prescribes  the  latter,  as  he  frequently 
does  in  a  variety  of  diseases,  the  apothecary  becomes  a  liquor  dealer,  unless 
the  physician  orders  something  else  to  be  added,  whereby  the  spirit  loses  its 
identity. 
There  are  apothecaries  who  use  in  their  business  an  amount  of  liquors  in 
value  beyond  the  limitation  of  the  former  law,  or  who,  from  the  nature  of  their 
locality,  must  keep  larger  quantities  for  sale  ;  they  had  already  been  subject  to 
the  special  tax  of  liquor  dealers.  There  are  some  who  make  it  their  business 
to  sell  liquors  under  the  cloak  of  medicine,  and  such  should,  as  a  matter  of 
course,  be  liable  to  the  same  special  tax.  The  large  number,  however,  who 
conscientiously  adhere  to  their  duties  as  apothecaries,  and  many  of  whom  prob- 
ably require  annually  for  these  purposes  liquors  barely  exceeding  in  value  the 
amount  of  the  tax,  do  not  desire  to  become  liquor  dealers  ;  we  hope  they  will 
take  the  necessary  steps  to  lay  the  matter  before  Congress,  and  if  this  is  done 
in  a  proper  way,  we  believe  the  desired  relief  will  be  granted. 
The  Elixir  Nuisance. — We  have  received  a  letter  on  this  subject,  which 
contains  some  excellent  suggestions  with  a  view  of  abating  what  has  become  a 
nuisance,  that  we  have  requested  permission  from  the  author  for  its  publica- 
tion : 
