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Testing Gold and Silver Coins.

F. W. C. writes: "Please give a test for determining the genuineness of United States gold and silver coins."

Probably the easiest, quickest, and best way is to use the method devised by Archimedes-that of determining the specific gravity of the coin or coins in question.

Take the specific gravity of a known-to-be-genuine United States coin and compare it with the specific gravity of a coin the genuineness of which is doubted. If the two gravities are identical the suspected coin is all right and not a counterfeit. Directions for determining specific gravity can be found in any text-book of chemistry or physics.

PRACTICAL PHARMACY

Worth Knowing.

Solutions of silver salts should not be filtered through paper or cellulose, according to the Chemist and Druggist. "Dissolve and decant" should be the

rule.

Spirit of nitrous ether should be kept in a bottle inverted. Loss of strength is thus greatly minimized by trapping the ethyl nitrite.

Mixtures with wholly soluble ingredients will look more elegant if strained through absorbent cotton to remove minute foreign bodies.

When dispensing apomorphine hydrochloride in solution, all trace of alkali should be removed from the bottle. The faintest trace of alkali turns the solution "green."

Silver proteinate dissolves readily if placed in a measure and a few drops of glycerin added. Mix with a stirring-rod to a paste, then stir up with the requisite amount of water.

Restoring Old Tincture of Iodine.

The Interstate Medical Journal cites Roques that, on standing, tincture of iodine gradually becomes contaminated through the formation of hydriodic acid, which interferes with its usefulness. Roques has worked out an ingenious method by means of which the original purity of the tincture may be restored. The procedure is based upon two phenomena: the power of iodic and hydriodic acid mutually to destroy each other with the formation of iodine and water, and the complete insolubility of iodic acid in 95-per-cent alcohol. To the contaminated tincture a small amount of finely powdered iodic acid is added, and the whole vigorously shaken for five minutes. The excess of iodic acid is then allowed to settle to the bottom; the supernatant liquid is acid-free tincture of iodine.

Decolorizing Carbolic Acid.

The W. Pharmacy writes: "Will you suggest a method for decolorizing carbolic acid which has turned a dark red after standing in a tin container?"

A good method is to add alcohol to the phenol and then cool the mixture to a low temperature. The phenol will crystallize out in a colorless condition, and the colored alcohol may then be rejected.

Another method is to shake each liter of the liquefied phenol with about 3 grammes of white woolen threads. Zinc dust has been recommended for the same purpose.

Briefer Replies.

The R. Pharmacy: We are not familiar with the formula of the proprietary liquid you mention. We may say, however, that the formula for antiseptic solution, which is printed on page 258 of the U. S. P. VIII, produces a preparation of somewhat similar properties.

BOOKS

"MODERN STARTING, LIGHTING, AND IGNITION SYSTEMS."

This book by Victor W. Pagé, M.E., has been written with special reference to the requirements of the non-technical reader desiring easily understood explanatory matter relating to various types of automobile ignition, starting, and lighting systems. An introductory chapter is devoted to the consideration of elementary electrical principles enabling a person without previous electrical knowledge to follow the discussions of the workings of the various systems.

All the leading systems of starting, lighting, and ignition are described and illustrated in the book, and wiring diagrams are shown in both technical and nontechnical forms.

The price of the book is $1.50. Copies may be obtained from the Norman W. Henley Publishing Com- . pany, 132 Nassau Street, New York City.

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VOLUMEXX

VODICAL

THE MONTH'S

The Dye Situation....

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JN 1916

MAN OF MICH
LIBRARY

The Industry Growing in America........ 215

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Millionaires Made While You Wait.
By an Ohio Druggist......
A Complete System of Bookkeeping for
the Druggist. By The Bulletin Staff.... 232
Reciprocal Registration Throughout the
United States. First Paper.......
Cashing In on a Hobby (Illustrated). By
E. E. Duryee.

231

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BUSINESS HINTS.

217

How We Boost Our Stationery Sales-
Four Methods:

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Minor Mention......

EDITORIAL.

A Common Fallacy....

What is a Clerk Worth?..

Pretty Convincing Logic..

ABOUT PEOPLE.

217

Prize Article: Educating Customers
to Use Better Paper. By W. A.
Blaesser...

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The Right and Wrong of Figuring Percentage..

254

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Featuring an Exclusive Line. By
George D. Campbell.....
Taking Advantage of Stamp Custom-
ers. By O. W. Probert............. 242
Repeated Displays of Popular Sellers.
By Alex F. Peterson........
Ductless Glands-Interesting Develop-
ments. By Luther H. Vance, B.S....... 244
BOARD QUESTIONS ANSWERED.
An Indiana Examination....

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Raising a Ten Cent Customer to a One Dollar Purchaser.

Display Mennen's Shaving Cream on your cigar counter-the man's department. It's a man's article and should not be kept among toilet articles and other things appealing to women, where men seldom go. When you display Mennen's Shaving Cream on your cigar counter it acts as a silent salesman. Just try it for only one week and watch your sales take a jump.

Not only will your sales increase, but it will assist you in making a one dollar customer out of a former ten cent customer.

Users of mug soap seeing Mennen's Shaving Cream prominently displayed will be prompted to make inquiries and try it. You should educate every mug soap user who is a customer of yours to use shaving cream, for it means larger profits for you and greater shaving satisfaction for your customer. The average man uses two cakes of soap a year, which at 5 cents a cake gives you a profit on only 10 cents in a whole year. Sell that same man one tube of Mennen's Shaving Cream, which retails for 25 cents, and you make more profit on the first sale than you do on one year's supply of mug soap. A man averages four tubes of Mennen's Shaving Cream in a year, hence you make a profit in one year on one dollar as against 10 cents for mug soap. One trial of Mennen's will keep him a one dollar customer, for once a man tries Mennen's he will use no other. Every day we receive hundreds of letters from satisfied users stating that they will never use any other.

Mennen's is used differently; the lather is different and the result is different from all other shaving preparations. Dealers who handle Mennen's and other shaving creams tell us that Mennen's outsells all others.

Without increasing the appropriation, last year our shaving cream sales showed a gain of over 140 per cent. This year's advertising appropriation has been increased— it will help you sell more Mennen's.

Your jobber can supply you and also with Mennen's Talcum for Men, the sidepartner of our Shaving Cream. Designed especially for men, it comes in a masculine can, has a man's perfume and will not show white on the face because it has a neutral tint.

If you are not familiar with Mennen's Shaving Cream we will gladly send you a medium size tube together with a free trial of Talcum for Men upon receipt of 10 cents, either in stamps or coin.

The House of Mennen,

SHAVING CREAM DEPARTMENT,

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Vol. XXX.

THE

DETROIT, MICH., JUNE, 1916.

BULLETIN OF PHARMACY

Issued on the first of every month by

E. G. SWIFT, PUBLISHER,

Corner Joseph Campau Ave. and Atwater St., DETROIT, MICH.

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THE DYE SITUATION.

A great deal has appeared in the daily press lately concerning the shortage of dyestuffs in the United States. Very often the statement has been made that a big shipment, sometimes claimed to have a value of ten or fifteen million dollars, was about to be released by Germany, and that England had granted permission for the unobstructed shipping of this large consignment.

The truth seems to be that the British government granted licenses several months ago to permit $5,000,000 worth of dyestuffs to come to this country, but that Germany has demanded all along that the goods should be exchanged for cotton-a concession that England refuses to make.

Another obstruction is that it would in all probability be found difficult to get ships in

No. 6.

which the dyestuffs cargo might be brought to this country. Shipping facilities are not what might be termed good.

Added to all the rest is the possibility that Germany may not have the required amount of finished goods on hand.

THE INDUSTRY GROWING

IN AMERICA.

While negotiations of this character have been going on, however, an American dyestuffs industry of no small proportions has been in the process of development. Since the war broke out more than $100,000,000 has been invested in this country in dyestuffs and chemical industries, not including explosives, and before the war is over we shall have gone a long way toward being independent in this particular. It is confidently predicted that in another year or two the manufacture of this class of goods in the United States will have been put on a permanent foundation.

Indeed, it would appear that no measure of relief other than that which may be afforded by domestic manufacture may be looked for as long as the war lasts. While it is possible, of course, that diplomacy may unsnarl the tangle and that a big shipment may find its way across the Atlantic, those who are in the best position to tap inside sources of information do not expect such a development.

ADVANTAGES
OF THE

METRIC SYSTEM.

*

A bill has been introduced in Congress the purpose of which is to bring about a discontinuance of the use of the Fahrenheit scale in thermometers. The Lancet-Clinic, a medical journal, favors the change, and quotes this from a contemporary:

Land is first mapped out in degrees and minutes, then surveyed by the square mile; roads are run through by the rod, distances are measured by chains and links. The land is farmed by the acre. It becomes valuable for building purposes and is sold by the foot.

A building is erected by feet and inches, some of the metal work being in feet and tenths. Feet of lum

ber, neither linear nor cabic, come into the estimate. The house is ready for occupancy and is supplied with carpets and curtains by yards of varying width.

Contrast this with the metric system, where from the original map down to the minutest particular of house furnishing we are dealing with even multiples of the same unit!

The Lancet-Clinic sees something childlike in our adherence to "systems which were born when a grain of wheat from the middle of the ear was the standard."

DEATH

ADJOURNS COURT.

In its crusade against "patent" medicines, the American Medical Association has been particularly severe in the treatment of Wine of Cardui, manufactured by the Chattanooga Medicine Company. Not only was the preparation attacked, but the owners of the company, John A. and Z. C. Patten, brothers, felt so aggrieved that they brought heavy damage suits against the association and against the editor of the Journal of the A. M. A., George H. Simmons. One of these suits was for alleged personal libel, John A. Patten, plaintiff, and $200,000 being involved. This case had been on trial five weeks when Mr. Patten suffered what was taken to be a slight indisposition. An operation was advised for some abdominal difficulty, and from the shock of this he failed to rally. His death came as a decided surprise, and, of course, terminated the personal libel case. The other case pending, that of the company against the association, will doubtless be pushed aggressively. Mr. Patten was connected with a number of large business interests and was prominent in church circles.

MORE HARRISON

LAW
REGULATIONS.

The annual tax of $1, imposed on all dealers in Harrison law narcotics, must be paid again by July 1, for the coming year. This fact should not be overlooked.

There is a new ruling in connection with the payment of this tax which should not be overlooked, either-known as Treasury Decision No. 2327. When a dealer makes application for reregistration, he must also file with the collector a sworn-to inventory of such unexempted narcotics as he may have on hand at the time the application is made. However, if he has on hand an inventory taken the first of the year, or at some other time during the

year, this may be sworn to and used instead of an inventory taken at the time application is made. No special form need be followed, but kind and quantity of the narcotics involved must be definitely stated. A copy must be kept on file, also.

Collectors will refuse registration to those who do not comply with the provisions of this ruling, it is announced.

"JOEL BLANC"

AND

THE N. A. R. D.

Matters pharmaceutical are enlivened somewhat nowadays by periodical letters sent out by J. Leyden White, until recently the Washington correspondent of the N. A. R. D. Mr. White uses ink with ginger in it, and his communications are always interesting-and therefore welcome-even though they may not be vested with authority.

Differences exist, it seems, between Mr. White and the officers of the N. A. R. D.differences quite acute. So acute, in fact, that Mr. White proposes to divulge a number of inside facts and figures; to depict a few internal conditions. All of which will make more interesting reading!

What the N. A. R. D. needs is a new constitution, Mr. White avers; he says, furthermore, that one of his "offenses" was daring to side with the Iowa contingent, which somewhat mildly demanded a few reforms at the last convention of the national body, held in Minneapolis.

Mr. White has been succeeded at Washington by Eugene C. Brockmeyer.

A

RULING Revised.

*

It will be recalled that last fall a ruling was promulgated by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue to the effect that the narcotic content of a preparation should be stated in terms of grains, when a Harrison law item was ordered from a jobber or a manufacturer. This ruling was to become operative May 1, but was revoked late in April.

In ordering such goods now, the quantity of the preparation or product must be stated in ounces, if the preparation is a liquid, or the "units or total thereof" must be stated, if the narcotic is contained in a pill, tablet, ampoule, or suppository. The particular narcotic involved must be made known, also. Examples: "32 ounces F. E. Opium Camphorated, in

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