Cheap  Drugs. 
f  Am.  jour.  Pharm. 
\      Sept.  1875 
a  better  man  than  the  "  wholesale  manufacturer^''  the  suggested  change 
would  not  be  an  improvement. 
We  entirely  coincide  with  the  opinion  expressed  by  the  writer  whose 
-words  we  have  quoted,  that  the  purchase  of  articles  by  the  pharmacist 
which  should  properly  be  made  in  his  own  laboratory  is  a  "  questionable 
practiced  Every  well-ordered  dispensing-store  should  produce  as  many 
of  the  preparations  of  the  ''Pharmacopoeia"  as  time,  space  and  reason- 
able convenience  of  apparatus  will  permit. 
A  large  number  of  articles,  such  as  tinctures,  syrups,  cerates,  fluid 
extracts,  etc.,  can  be  prepared  by  the  apothecary  with  as  much  econ- 
omy as  would  result  from  the  purchase  of  them.  Besides,  it  is  a  duty 
to  instruct  apprentices  in  this  branch  of  their  profession. 
There  is,  however,  quite  a  list  of  officinal  preparations,  which,  to  be 
produced  economically,  and  up  to  the  market  standard  of  purity  and 
appearance,  require  to  be  made  on  an  extensive  scale,  with  all  the 
advantages  of  costly  apparatus,  space  and  capital  united. 
We  cannot  censure  the  apothecary  because  he  prefers  to  buy  his 
quinia,  morphia,  strychnia,  tartar  emetic,  chloroform,  ether,  essential 
oils,  etc.,  in  place  of  manufacturing  them  for  himself  at  a  pecuniary 
loss,  and  at  a  great  sacrifice  of  time  ;  his  reward  being  only  the  satis- 
faction of  having  made  them  himself. 
The  difficulty,  it  appears  to  us,  lies  in  the  fact  that  the  subdivision 
of  labor,  which  has  wrought  such  marked  changes  in  all  industrial 
occupations,  has  not  left  pharmacy  unassailed. 
We  once  made  our  own  blue  mass  and  mercurial  ointment,  pow- 
dered our  own  ipecac,  jalap  and  asafoetida.  Where  will  we  find  an 
advocate  for  a  return  to  this  system  ? 
No  practical  business  man  in  the  drug  trade  can  be  ignorant  of  the 
'fact  that  in  the  manufacture  of  such  articles  as  the  salts  of  quinia, 
morphia,  and  strychnia,  preparations  of  mercury  (as  calomel,  cor- 
rosive sublimate,  red  precipitate,  etc.),  a  great  deal  of  space,  a  large 
amount  of  capital,  and  a  degree  of  skill  to  be  acquired  only  by  long 
experience  and  close  attention,  are  required. 
They  must  be  produced  in  quantity  to  be  ready  for  the  demands  of 
consumers,  and  they  must  be  of  uniform  purity  and  appearance.  That 
the  ordinary  apothecary  could  not  meet  these  requirements  must  be  so 
evident  that  it  is  unnecessary  to  enlarge  on  this  point. 
That  the  sophistication  of  medicines  is  a  most  serious  matter  cannot 
be  disputed,  and  that  it  is  deserving  of  the  severest  condemnation  no 
aright-minded  man  will  question. 
