Am  Jour.  Pharnj.  > 
January,  1895.  J 
Editorial. 
47 
EDITORIAL. 
It  has  always  been  the  aim  of  the  management  of  The  American  Journal 
of  Pharmacy  to  first  publish  original  papers  on  subjects  relating  to  phar- 
macy, and  then  as  far  as  possible  to  furnish  abstracts  of  foreign  communica- 
tions. Not  less  than  forty-eight  pages  are  issued  monthly.  During  the  past 
year,  however,  this  has  been  found  insufficient  to  include  all  the  original  con- 
tributions offered,  and  it  is  probable  that  sixty-four  pages  will  be  the  usual  size 
of  the  Journal  for  1895.  By  this  means  we  hope,  in  addition  to  the  original 
articles,  to  give  an  occasional  review  of  the  latest  developments  in  the  various 
departments  of  pharmacy.  A  review  of  industrial  chemistry  for  the  year  1894 
has  been  promised  by  an  authority  on  that  subject. 
ADVERTISED  THEMSELVES  INTO  FAME  AND  FORTUNE. 
It  is  to  be  regretted  that  such  an  eminently  respectable  body  as  the  National 
Wholesale  Druggists'  Association  should  be  on  the  road  to  domination  by  a 
few  "patent  medicine  kings." 
Coincident  with  the  autumn  meeting  of  this  Association  in  New  York,  the 
Times  of  that  city  commented  on  these  proprietary  manufacturers  as  follows  : 
They  were  men,  any  one  of  whom  could  have  convinced  one  of  the  worthlessness  of  gold 
mines  as  compared  with  printer's  ink.  Their  names  are  more  familiar  to  the  people  of  the 
United  States  than  the  names  of  the  members  of  the  President's  Cabinet.  They  were  men 
who  advertised  themselves  into  fame  and  fortune. 
Then  followed  a  short  biographical  sketch  of  each,  which  some  of  the  phar- 
maceutical journals,  who  profess  to  live  for  the  benefit  of  the  pharmacist,  have 
published,  with  the  view  of  still  further  advertising  their  "  kings." 
While  this  article  in  the  Times  was  written  with  the  intention  of  lauding 
these  men,  to  one  who  knows  the  true  inwardness  of  the  patent  medicine  busi- 
ness, it  must  have  exactly  the  opposite  effect.  Nothing  was  said  about  the 
value  or  worthlessness  of  their  bastard  remedies;  these  men  simply  "adver- 
tized themselves  into  fame  and  fortune." 
To  put  it  more  truthfully,  they  simply  preyed  on  the  imagination  and 
resources  of  the  poor  and  ignorant  and  made  themselves  rich. 
A  few  days  ago  the  writer  received  at  his  residence,  through  the  Post  Office, 
what  professed  to  be  a  newspaper,  but  really  was  a  circular  from  one  of  these 
"nostrum  kings."  This  circular  should  never  have  been  forwarded  by  the 
Postal  Department ;  it  was  filled  with  the  portraits  and  testimonials  of  such  a 
miserable  class  of  unfortunate  women,  and  with  such  a  host  of  "prayerful" 
letters  from  a  still  more  detestable  class  of  so-called  Doctors  of  Divinity,  about 
their  wives,  as  to  make  it  utterly  unfit  to  appear  in  any  respectable  household. 
The  American  Pharmaceutical  Associatioii  kept  the  whole  patent  medicine 
subject  out  of  its  meetings  for  many  years,  but  now  one  maj^  listen  to  drug- 
gists, doctors  and  professors  eloquently  denouncing  the  "cutter"  and  vividly 
picturing  how  some  "  new  plan  "  or  "league  "  will  enable  the  pharmacist  to 
once  more  establish  himself  in  this  miserable  traffic. 
There  is  but  one  way  for  the  pharmacists  of  the  country  to  combat  this  busi- 
ness, and  that  is  to  combine  against  it.  The  physician  and  pharmacist  could 
unite  on  this  platform,  and  now  is  a  very  opportune  time  to  do  it,  while  the 
physician  is  thinking  about  conducting  a  little  pharmacy  of  his  own  in  the 
shape  of  a  chest  of  "  tablet  triturates  "  and  "  compressed  tablets." 
