284  EDITORIAL. 
penalties  for  violation  of  the  law  ;  and  whether  the  hourly  provocation  to 
perjury,  evasion  and  concealment,  held  out  by  a  $2  tax,  will  not  more  than 
counterbalance  any  good  which  may  result?  The  commission  do  not  con- 
sider thatthe  high  tax  has  greatly  diminished  the  use  of  spirits  as  a  beve- 
rage, but  that  the  use  of  opium  and  other  narcotics  has  increased  in  con- 
sequence of  the  tax. 
The  newspaper  reports  of  the  proceedings  in  Congress,  that  have  from 
time  to  time  been  presented,  which  throw  any  light  on  the  subject,  indicate 
a  strong  indisposition  on  the  part  of  the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means 
to  reduce  the  tax,  and  it  seems  the  general  impression  that  they  will  re- 
sist the  recommendation  of  the  commission,  backed  as  it  is  by  the  mass 
of  testimony  and  facts  they  offer.  The  statistical  portions  of  this  Report 
are  quite  interesting,  and  we  hope  to  avail  ourselves  of  them  in  a  future 
number. 
Report  No.  8,  relative  to  proprietory  and  other  medicines,  perfumery, 
&c,  contains  several  recommendations  which  closely  concern  apothecaries 
and  druggists.  The  first  is  an  addition  to  paragraph  31,  section  79,  of  the 
law  in  which  manufacturers  are  defined,  viz  : 
"Provided,  That  apothecaries  who  manufacture  for  their  own  dispens- 
ing and  sales  to  consumers  and  to  physicians,  the  medicines  compounded 
according  to  the  United  States  or  other  national  pharmacopoeias,  or  of 
which  the  full  and  proper  formula  is  published  in  any  of  the  dispensatories 
now  or  hitherto  in  common  use  among  physicians  or  apothecaries,  or  in 
any  Pharmaceutical  journal  now  issued  by  any  incorporated  College  of 
Pharmacy,  shall  not  be  regarded  as  manufacturers  under  this  act.  But 
apothecaries,  and  all  other  persons  who  manufacture  for  the  dispensing 
and  sales  of  others,  or  who  make  and  advertise  any  article,  medicinal  or 
otherwise,  simple  or  compound,  with  any  special  proprietory  claim  to  merit 
or  to  special  advantage  in  use  or  effect,  whether  such  claim  be  based  on 
the  properties,  qualities,  price,  or  any  other  distinctive  or  distinguishing 
characteristic,  whether  real  or  pretended,  of  the  articles  so  made  and  ad- 
vertised, whether  such  article  be  or  be  not  made  according  to  the  author- 
ity above  cited  in  this  proviso,  the  maker  or  makers  thereof  shall  be  re- 
garded as  manufacturers  under  this  act." 
The  reasons  given  for  this  proviso  are  to  encourage  apothecaries  to 
make,  their  own  preparations  according  to  legal  authority,  and  thus  be  bet- 
ter qualified  to  give  security  and  bear  the  responsibility  incurred  in  their 
sale  and  use.  That  as  they  pay  the  Government  a  license  to  carry  on  the 
business  of  an  apothecary,  they  are  only  carrying  out  the  business  for 
which  this  license  is  given  when  they  prepare  the  medicines  they  sell,  and 
hence  are  not  justly  to  be  called  upon  to  pay  a  manufacturer's  license. 
But  when  they  step  aside  from  their  duty  as  dispensers,  and  make  any 
preparation  largely  for  the  sales  of  others,  they  become  manufacturers, 
whether  the  article  prepared  be  laudanum  or  cod-liver  oil. 
Second.  They  recommend  the  following  addition  to  paragraph  33,  Sec. 
79,  after  the  final  word  alcohol. 
"  Or  of  dispensing,  upon  physicians'  prescriptions  the  wines  and  spirits 
officinal  in  the  United  States  and  other  national  pharmacopoeias,  either 
simple  or  compound,  in  quantities  not  exceeding  half  a  pint  of  either  at 
