and pleasure go hand in hand. He buys a few pounds of the dried flowers of the malva, rose, violet, calendula, etc., and after satisfying his esthetic sense, he scents the lot up with a few essential oils and a synthetic or two, and the outfit sells as an "old-fashioned sachet." In every business we get out of it what we put into it; and if druggists would only realize that merely getting people into the shop does not mean profit, we would not have so many complaints. State associations? Good things; everybody gets what is coming to him. In our good State, the pharmacy board and the State association are intimately connected, and members of the Old Guard get the fat offices on the board, keep them for ten or fifteen years, and then name their successors. The other mem bers hear their own voices occasionally and get to be some of the many vice-presidents, possibly (our association has five), or maybe president. Some one must do the work and reap the reward, and why not the Old Guard? Those comprising it usually wear a good-sized hat and remember that six-and-seven-eighths is the regulation sucker size. Good-bye, Old Man Hicks! What a backbone you must have, to tell a dime customer right out that you do not want her trade! That is not according to the usual drug-store rules, where one sometimes feels that he has to sacrifice his self-respect. Our own fault, though; many a druggist mistakes servility for civility. A CRACKER DRUGGIST. PROMPTED BY ONE OF HITTER'S CARTOONS. To the Editors: Just a few lines for your indispensable magazine. Only a few nights ago I had a sweet dream. Not about the narcotic law, however, as illustrated in your cartoon in the April number. The narcotic law has not caused me to have such dreams, for I have always found it easy to keep up with this law by reading the BULLETIN OF PHARMACY. But the "trouble" in my dreams has been the rise in the price of drugs. I dreamt that potassium iodide and iodine resublimed had advanced so that I had to sell tincture of iodine for a dollar an ounce. On waking up next BLAME THE WAR -and Not Your Local Druggist If you don't know the real conditions, you are apt to blame your local druggist because he charges you more for filling a prescription than he did a year ago. Maybe you can't understand why you only get half as many quinine capsules for a dime, or why Because of Blockades and Embargoes, It Is you have to pay almost double for the same size Bottle of Castor Impossible for Him to Sell at the Old Prices The Deadly Submarines of the warring nations are to blame. The European war has practically cut off all importations of drugs from foreign markets. Men formerly given steady employment in the great German chemical factories are now in the trenches. Where Foreigners Formerly Sold to Us, Now They Buy From Us. Nations which once SOLD drugs to this country are now buying here-thus not only cutting off our largest source of supply, but demanding that we supply them with their needs. Druggists of the South could have made enormous profits by selling their surplus stock to New York brokers. Recently we could have sold our entire stock of quinine for twenty-five cents an ounce above the highest price we ever charged our customers, but we didn't do it. We knew our customers would need it, and we wanted to protect them. Your druggist could have sold out, but he didn't do it, because he wanted to protect YOU. Your Druggist Isn't a Robber, He Is Your Friend and Neighbor, a High-Class Gentleman He is interested in his community-in YOU. He tries to serve your best interests. When he charges you more for his goods it is because they are costing him moremany times more. Everything he buys costs him from fifty per cent to FIVE THOUSAND per cent more than it did a year ago; even his freight has advanced materially. WE BELIEVE IT IS DUE THE RETAIL DRUGGIST THAT THESE FACTS BE MADE KNOWN TO THE PUBLIC, AND WE VOUCH FOR THE ACCURACY OF EVERY STATEMENT MADE. REMEMBER THESE FIGURES WHEN YOUR BILL SEEMS UNUSUALLY LARGE. SPURLOCK-NEAL CO. Helping the Druggist. This is a reproduction of a full-page ad which appeared in the Nashville Tennesseean. The retail patrons of the Spurlock-Neal Company, wholesale druggists, were highly pleased to receive this assistance, for customers of drug stores are inclined to find fault when asked to pay more for a product or preparation than they have been in the habit of paying. Show such customers this page. THE SODA FOUNTAIN. THE USE OF STABILIZERS IN ICE CREAM. In an address delivered before the Nebraska Association of Ice Cream Manufacturers and reprinted in the Pacific Drug Review, J. H. Fradsen, professor of dairy husbandry in the University of Nebraska, discussing the value of stabilizers as a method of improving the body and texture of ice cream, said: "Stabilizers are substances added to ice cream for the purpose of improving the body and texture of the ice cream by preventing the formation of ice crystals in the finished product. In some cases a substance which is added to give the ice cream a better body is termed a binder, and a substance to give a smooth texture and prevent the formation of ice crystals is termed a filler. As a matter of fact, a substance that will act as a binder will act as a filler also. These terms, however, are somewhat misleading. The term 'stabilizer' comes nearer suggesting the true function of these substances in ice cream. Body and texture are so intimately related that the two usually go together, and in many places these terms are used interchangeably. On this point Washburn says, 'The words body and texture are used in ice-cream making to mean two quite different things. Body is synonymous with structure or substance. It refers to the entire mass as a unit. Texture, on the other hand, has to do with the finer make-up of the article. . . . The one has to do with the mass characteristics; the other with the arrangement of the particles.' SOME COMMON STABILIZERS. "There are numerous substances which may be used as stabilizers. The most common ones are starch, egg albumin, milk solids, gums, gelatin, and prepared powders made from a mixture of two or more of these. "The starchy stabilizers are still used quite extensively in ice-cream making. Corn starch, wheat flour, rice flour and arrowroot starch are the most common of these. Rice flour meets with considerable favor on account of the small size of the starch grains. All starchy substances, however, should be cooked before being used in ice cream because the starch grains break down in the cooking process and are more evenly and thoroughly incorporated with the cream. If the starch is not cooked, the coarse grains will very likely be apparent in the finished product. These starchy stabilizers are sometimes used in the plain ice cream and in the cheaper grades. They are rarely used in the fancy cooked mixtures containing eggs. "Eggs when used in ice cream act both as a stabilizer and as a flavor. Ice cream which contains many eggs has a very smooth texture, a heavy body, and a pronounced custard flavor. Ice-cream mixtures of this class must always be cooked before the mixture is frozen. "Milk solids, however, do not require cooking and serve a useful purpose in the ice-cream mixture. These substances are added to the mixture either as milk powder, condensed milk, or in the form of homogenized cream. Where these substances are used in the mixture the ice cream has a better body and texture The and also a higher food value on account of the higher percentage of milk solids which it contains. In addition to the substances already mentioned, there are certain gums which are sometimes used in ice cream. "Tragacanth is the name of a gum obtained from plants found in the mountains of Asia Minor. gum exudes through natural fissures and through incisions, appearing as ribbon and leaf or flake tragacanth. When placed in water, gum tragacanth does not dissolve, but swells and becomes so distended as to occupy all of the water in which it is placed, forming an adhesive, viscous mass. When used as a stabilizer for ice cream the required amount of gum is soaked in warm water before being added to the ice-cream mixture, or a 'gum tragacanth stock' may be prepared by placing one ounce of gum tragacanth in a quart of water and heating gently until the entire mass becomes thick and tenacious. About three pounds of sugar are then added, and in this condition the gum will keep for several weeks. "Gum tragacanth possesses some advantages over many of the other substances used in the ice-cream mixture in that it is tasteless, odorless, and easy to use. It is a very satisfactory stabilizer and is frequently used in place of gelatin, particularly where public sentiment is against the use of the gelatinoid stabilizers. USE OF PREPARED POWDERS. "Prepared powders, known as ice-cream powders, or by some special trade name, are made up for the most part from some of the substances described in the foregoing. The value of these substances depends upon the presence of finely powdered gum tragacanth or gelatin or a mixture of these with rice flour, powdered arrowroot, and sugar. The results obtained from the use of these are sometimes quite satisfactory, but on the whole it would seem more desirable for the icecream maker to know the exact nature and composition of the stabilizer used. City ordinances and State laws are not uniform in regard to the use of stabilizers in ice cream; hence the importance of knowing the composition of prepared substances such as ice-cream powders. "The object of using stabilizers is to give the ice cream a more pleasing texture and a better body. It seems that the opinion quite commonly held by those unfamiliar with the process of ice-cream making is that these stabilizers are adulterants. This, however, is not the case, as these substances are almost analogous to the baking powders or cream of tartar and soda, eggs, and other substances used in cakes to give lightness. In other words, stabilizers are essential to the production of good body and texture in ice cream made under practical commercial conditions. Instead of being adulterants or substitutes for other food products, many of these have a high food value. The food value of eggs is well known to all. The milk solids which are added in the form of milk powder or condensed milk have a high food value also, and at the same time improve the flavor of the ice cream. "The effect of stabilizers upon 'swell' has apparently been somewhat overestimated. The opinion held by some is that a stabilizer is used to increase the 'swell' of the ice cream. The opinion is shared by many icecream makers also, but, according to all data on this subject available at the present time, stabilizers appar ently have just the opposite effect. It has been pointed out that as a rule where varying amounts of these substances are used there is a very noticeable reduction in the average 'swell' of the ice cream during the freezing process. GELATIN IS SOMETIMES OBJECTED TO. "The use of gelatin in ice cream is frequently denounced not only because some consider it an adulterant, but because of the fact that it may become contaminated in the manufacturing process. Since this is quite true of the lower grades, great care should be exercised in selecting the gelatin used in ice-cream making. When the proper precautions have been taken to select gelatin of known purity, there can be no reasonable grounds for objecting to its use in the icecream mixture. The amount used is quite insignificant, and instead of being a harmful substance, it is a food of no little value. Although gelatin is not a tissue builder, it is said to have a heat and energy value about equal to that of proteids and is very easily digested. Owing to the fact that gelatin melts very readily in warm weather and solidifies again upon cooling, it makes an excellent stabilizer for ice cream and sherbets. "As has been pointed out, these substances are for the purpose of improving the body and texture of the frozen product. This is a matter of considerable importance to the ice-cream maker where the ice cream must be shipped or hauled some distance before it reaches the consumer. In the hot summer weather it is difficult to ice a tub thoroughly enough so it will stand a very long shipment unless a stabilizer of some sort has been used. The temperature of the ice cream need rise only a few degrees when the ice cream is repacked. If the ice cream becomes slightly softened in transit and is then iced down and frozen it will be found that the texture has become more or less granular. The difficulties in handling rail shipments of ice cream in hot weather must be encountered to be fully appreciated. These difficulties are overcome, in part at least, by the judicious use of stabilizers." IF WE could get enough members. IF ENOUGH strong men would join, I WOULD gladly be one of 12 TO WALK INTO any soda fountain where they have this system, LAY DOWN 60 cents on the wet marble BUT I WOULD never dare to do it alone, PERHAPS we could put it over, AND SO free mankind from a pest. SUNDAES FROM SUNDRY SOURCES. PETER PAN SUNDAE. Place a slice of pineapple in a fruit nappy and pour over it an ounce of crème de menthe syrup. On this place a No. 10 cone of pistachio ice cream and sprinkle with chopped pecan nut meats. Top with whipped cream and add a green cherry. BANANA SUNDAE, PLAIN. Place two No. 20 mounds of vanilla ice cream close together on a split banana, and cover with whipped cream so as to make an oblong mound. Sprinkle the whipped cream with grated sweet chocolate and drop a maraschino cherry in the center. COUNTY CORK SUNDAE. Make a quart of orange flower water syrup (4 ounces of water and simple syrup enough) and color a light green. Put a No. 8 mound of pistachio ice cream into a champagne glass THE IMPROVEMENTS IN TWO DECADES. According to a statement appearing some time ago in the Confectioners' Journal, the great or radically important improvements in soda as served at counters in the past twenty years have really been very few. Chief among the new departures are: The introduction of ice-cream soda, which made soda appeal to every one. The use of so-called hot soda-really hot drinks, which popularized the all-the-year soda service. The use of shaved ice in drinks and with fruit. The creation of the sundae with its unlimited variety. The discovery of concentrated fruit syrups for use in place of fruit juices or extracts. The perfection of the automatic carbonator, permitting the making of soda water on the premises at a nominal cost. The introduction of crushed fruits with their large possibilities. The use of raw eggs in making soda drinks of various kinds. The introduction of whipped cream in connection with sodas, sundaes, and egg drinks. The use of marshmallow at soda fountains. The development of the luncheonette at the fountain, which has had and will have a further development. The use of electric utensils, especially mixers. The application of sanitary service in every phase, which has caused public confidence in soda. Individual paper cups. The discovery and perfect development of the present sanitary pump soda fountain with all its conveniences. These introductions are not many, but they have been almost revolutionary in their effect, and each and every one of them has resulted in the betterment of the soda trade and the large increase in the volume of business done. Some few of the changes have resulted in the doubling of business many times over in the short space of two or three years. ARTIFICIAL VS. NATURAL ICE. Natural ice has a greater refrigerating power than manufactured ice, is the opinion voiced by Ex-President Belcher of the Mountain States Ice Manufacturers' Association, in the course of remarks made while acting as chairman of the recent convention of that association in Denver, Col. A cubic foot of natural ice, according to the speaker, does not weigh as much as does a cubic foot of the manufactured article, because of the presence of air cells in the former. This confined air, the speaker stated, when set free by the melting of the ice, adds materially to the refrigerating effect. The great talking point in favor of the manufactured product is, in the opinion of Mr. Belcher, the fact of its purity, which is insured by the conditions under which it is made. This makes it far more reliable from the standpoint of safety, where it is employed as an actual constituent of products intended for human consumption.-Ice Cream Trade Journal. HANDLING A RUSH CROWD. C. G. Bassman, in an article which appeared recently in the Druggists Circular, has the following to say concerning the handling of rush crowds at his fountain: "We figured for some time on how to handle our theater crowd and odd rushes without keeping a bunch of help hanging around all day for the rush purpose. Here is the result: "We have twenty tables, numbered from 1 up to 20. The customers as they arrive are requested to sit at the unoccupied table bearing the lowest number, as orders from No. 1 will be filled first, from No. 2 next, and so on. The result is that all are waited on in their proper turn. The request is marked on a large card hanging in a conspicuous place at the fountain, and is repeated on the menu cards. "We have no complaints of orders being filled out of their proper turn." |