THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY. 
APRIL,  1875. 
CHEMICAL  EXAMINATION  OF  A  NOSTRUM   CALLED  CINCHO- 
QUININE. 
BY  EMIL  SCHEFFER  AND  C.  LEWIS  DIEHL. 
The  relation  of  the  pharmacist  to  the  physician  is  of  such  a  char- 
acter that  the  pharmacist  is  frequently  called  upon  to  act  as  the  adviser 
to  the  physician  in  framing  formulas  and  in  determining  the  precise  con- 
ditions in  which  medicines  miy  be  prescribed  to  the  best  advantage  of 
the  sick.  So  long  as  such  influence  is  exercised  solely  for  the  benefit 
and  in  the  interest  of  the  patient,  the  influence  so  exercised  is  proper 
and  honorable,  even  if  the  pharmacist  is  thereby  directly  and  materially 
the  gainer ;  but  if  the  pharmacist  abuses  his  privilege  and  prostitutes 
the  professional  influence  he  may  command  for  the  primary  motive  of 
gain,  he  is  deserving  of  the  severest  opprobrium,  and  ranks  beneath  the 
most  impotent  quack.  Such  being  our  opinion  of  a  class  of  special- 
ists who  offer  gold  and  furnish  gilded  dross,"  we  have  considered  it  our 
duty  to  combat  the  specialty  innovation,  in  so  far  as  it  is  based  upon 
secrecy  of  formula,  and  whenever  unduly  placed  before  the  medical 
profession. 
Several  years  ago,  a  preparation  called  "  Cincho-Quinine "  was 
thrown  upon  the  market  by  Jas.  R.  Nichols  &  Co. — now  Billings, 
Clapp  &  Co. — of  Boston,  Mass.  The  manner  in  which  the  attention 
of  medical  practitioners  was  drawn  to  the  nostrum  is  too  familiar  to  the 
pharmacist  to  require  detailed  mention  here.  Suffice  it  to  say,  that  by 
diligent  and  profuse  advertisement,  bylthe  representation  of  the  manu- 
facturers that  it  was  an  accurate  alkaloidal  representative  of  cinchona 
bark,  by  its  apparent  cheapness  as  compared  to  sulphate  of  quinia,  and, 
undoubtedly  also,  by  a  certain  medicinal  value,  the  article  has  gained 
favor  with  many  physicians,  and  is,  in^some  localities,  frequently  pre- 
scribed as  a  substitute  for  sulphate  of  quinia.  Among  pharmacists, 
however,  and  especially  among  those  who  were  educated  to  a  profes- 
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