SELECTIONS

THE YAMACRAW CLUB.

[The mailboy brought us the following report of a recent session of the Yamacraw Drug Club. Those interested in association matters will appreciate the keen sarcasm.-THE EDITORS.]

The meeting was called to order promptly at 8:30, thirty-eight of the forty members being present. After the minutes of the last meeting were read and confirmed, reports of committees were in order.

Committee on Drug Standardization reported an examination of six samples of tincture of digitalis by the colorimetric method of W. Martindale. Four were found standard and two slightly above. This was a relief to the Club, as for some time members had been using the rather disagreeable "pithed frog" method for physiological assay.

The President here called attention to the condition of weights, balances and graduates, the monthly inspection showing a variation of nearly one-hundredth of one per cent from standard.

An examination of a "moth powder" now on the local market was reported. Package labeled: "Moth Powder; better than moth balls; cheaper than camphor; most noxious to moths; price 25 cents." Weight of contents, 436 grammes. The powder was found to consist of a finely comminuted ligneous product, evidently of the Pinaceae family, impregnated with an impure cedrene camphor. Traces were found of the hydrocarbon C1oHs. Cost, about three cents the package; evidently an imposition on the public.

A member was reprimanded by the Committee on Business for varying from custom. He was found placing a large slice of orange or lemon in the drinks dispensed at his fountain, so that the fruit was directly under the nose and in line of vision. His defense was rather weak, he claiming that it was merely a matter of olfactory- and vision-psychology; that with the nose and eyes closed the citrine odors could not be differentiated by taste; that "the vibratory hypothesis of the action of odors" was not yet understood, and that there was an intimate analogy between odor, taste, and vision. His case was continued.

A question of commercial usage came up. A member purchased a gross of Beef, Wine and Iron, labeled one dollar a bottle, and at a special sale sold two bottles for a dollar and one cent. Other druggists were selling the same preparation at 39 and 47 cents a bottle. The member was reprimanded.

An interesting paper was read by Mr. Saber upon the wonderful detergent action of a mixture of the oleates, palmitates and stearates of certain alkalies when properly combined with hydrogen monoxide. Action was best at 42° Cent., it was said.

A member reported upon a "Capsule of Science," where the statement was made that a "heatless" flame could be produced by igniting ether floating upon the surface of tetrachloride of carbon. He says that water, well cooled and saturated with carbon dioxide, is excellent for painful burns.

More time was asked by Mr. Kennenall, his report not being completed, upon the solubility of acetanilide in a hydroalcoholic solution of the bromides, citrates, etc. His request was granted.

The Question Box contained but one query: "If (a) the porter breaks a bottle of 'Bruna," retail price one dollar, cut to 69 cents, wholesale price eight dollars the dozen, less two per cent and expense of doing business (twentyeight and a half per cent)-what is the loss?

"Should (b) the porter be made to pay? If so, how much? Or should the broken bottle be returned to the jobber for credit? Or both?"

There being no further business to be transacted, the Club enjoyed a delightful supper prepared by the steward, and the evening was finished by an automobile drive.

TO PURIFY DRINKING-WATER.

The Chicago Department of Health, according to the Illinois Medical Journal, offers the following suggestions:

There are two simple methods by which water may be made safe for drinking purposes: (a) boiling, (b) hypochlorite treatment. The purification of drinking-water by hypochlorite treatment is very simple, inexpensive, and highly efficient; it is a precautionary measure which should be adopted by every traveler whose duties carry him into "typhoid territory."

To purify drinking-water, prepare the fol

lowing stock solution: Water, 1 quart; chloride of lime, 1 teaspoonful.

Keep this solution in a tightly stoppered bottle; a mason jar or a thermos bottle being well adapted to the purpose, the latter especially when traveling.

Label the bottle "Stock Solution;" write the formula on the label, and add the following directions:

To purify water for drinking purposes add one teaspoonful of the stock solution to two gallons of water.

If the water is turbid strain it through fine muslin before adding any of the stock solution.

After adding stock solution allow the water prepared for drinking purposes to stand uncovered for twenty minutes before using. This allows the gases to escape and makes the water more palatable.

Then bottle the prepared water and keep on ice. Never put ice in the water.

GERMS.

Protozoa are the smallest and simplest form of animal life.

Bacteria are the smallest and simplest form of vegetable life.

Protozoa and bacteria are commonly called germs. A germ, therefore, is the smallest and simplest form of either animal or vegetable life, consisting of a single animal or vegetable cell.

In size germs vary greatly, the average being about one twenty-five-thousandth of an inch.

There are numberless varieties of germs. They exist in the water, in the air, on the surface of the earth, on the skin and clothes, and on practically every other living or dead object.

Many germs are not only harmless but essential. Dead animals and vegetables are changed by them into carbonic acid, water, ammonia and certain other substances which fertilize the earth and, in turn, serve as nourishment for other animals and vegetables. They are also responsible for the souring of milk, the coloring of leaves, the fading of leaves in autumn, the fragrance of certain plants, and many other works of nature. Many germs derive their food from living human tissue, and are diseaseproducing.

Under favorable conditions, such as warmth, moisture and a suitable soil, a single germ may

produce millions within a day. When it reaches its maximum size it divides into various parts, each of which becomes a new germ, and every germ divides in the same way as long as conditions are favorable. In the process of cell-division certain poisons or toxins are formed which either retard or destroy germ life.

Germs enter the body through open wounds in the skin and through the various mucous membranes, especially those of the food canal and air passages. Hundreds of thousands of deaths are produced annually in the United States by disease germs which enter the body through impure food and air.

The following are the principal communicable diseases: Tuberculosis, malaria, typhoid fever, measles, mumps, scarlet fever, diphtheria, whooping-cough, lockjaw, la grippe, chicken-pox, smallpox, yellow fever, bubonic plague, cholera, gonorrhea, syphilis, erysipelas, dysentery, and blood poison. Communicable diseases are preventable.

Heat is the best germicide known, and should be used in preference to all others whenever applicable. All refuse from sickrooms and elsewhere should be burned.Louisiana Health Almanac.

INCONSISTENCY.

Consistency may be a jewel; we do not propose to know, but nevertheless we agree with Emerson that "with consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. If you would be a man, speak what you think to-day, in words as hard as cannon-balls; and to-morrow, speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict all you said to-day."

Some people would rather be wrong than change their minds; in fact an effort to convince them they are wrong merely succeeds in proving to them that they are right.

Professor Wilbur L. Scoville, of Detroit, has amply demonstrated that diluted fluid extracts make just as good tinctures as tinctures made from the powdered drug. This is opposed to what we have always believed, but being great admirers of Mr. Scoville, and knowing that he conducted exhaustive experiments to prove his facts, we here and now proclaim our conversion to the new faith.— Carolina Journal of Pharmacy.

LETTERS

PRESCRIPTION PRICING COMMENTS.

To the Editors:

I have read with considerable interest the article entitled "Prescription Pricing in a Bad Way," which appeared on page 419 of the October BULLETIN.

The Evans rule referred to in the article I consider a very good one-in so far as it goes. But how should it be applied to a prescription like the following?

T. T. Strych. sulph., 1/60 grain.

Dispense 50.

Directions: One three times a day after meals. According to the Evans rule one should charge about 13 cents-the tablets would cost 3 cents, the container 1 cent, and the time consumed would be about three minutes.

My charge for such a prescription, however, would be seventy-five cents, and I think that most of my business friends in the high-rent district here would charge the same.

I get this same prescription occasionally, or rather one calling for one hundred tablets, and I charge, and get, $1.25 for it. The hundred tablets constitute over a month's treatment, so that a price of $1.25 is surely not exorbitant.

A minimum charge of fifty cents for a prescription, as suggested in the BULLETIN article, is not advisable-to my mind, at least. How about a single calomel powder, to be taken at bedtime? I would charge fifteen cents for it. It is not worth any more.

There are several things aside from the cost of materials and labor which, with me, influence the pricing of prescriptions. For instance, if the customer waits for the prescription the charge is less than if I have to deliver the purchase.

I have a fairly large hotel trade here, and the attending physician always insists on having his prescriptions filled immediately. He gets them immediately, but with an added charge of 20 per cent for the prompt service. Is that excessive?

On to-be-delivered-promptly prescriptions, if my own messengers (I employ two) are out, a special messenger is secured and the expense added to the prescription price.

I have yet, after ten years in business, to hear of any complaints of high prices arising in such cases. AN OTTAWA DRUGGIST.

NOTE BY THE EDITORS.-It is just such a letter as this that we like to receive-a letter that shows that the writer has given considerable thought to the matter of the proper pricing of prescriptions.

We may say in regard to the Evans rule, however, that it does not constitute a hard and fast method for determining the selling prices of all prescriptions. There should of course be a minimum figure, for inexpensive tablets, for instance, beneath which the druggist should never go. There is no reason why one should not get a relatively larger price on inexpensive medicines that are ordered in quantities large enough to constitute a long-term treatment.

But neither is there any reason why one should not get a living profit from a prescription simply because the ingredients entering into it are expensive.

The idea of the Evans rule is not to lead the druggist to believe that he should get only a certain profit on low-cost prescriptions, but rather that he must get a definite profit on all prescriptions, no matter what the cost of the ingredients entering into them.

While advocating a minimum charge for all prescriptions, the druggists who favor the Evans rule do not insist that the minimum shall be applied rigidly to every prescription which the physician writes. Prescriptions for a calomel powder, a single dose of a headache powder, or a bottle of citrate of magnesia, may well constitute exceptions. Furthermore, prescriptions of this kind are usually accompanied by the familiar "S.n.p.," and in such cases it is obviously impossible to charge more than the regular retail price.

But, after all, it is not with the exceptions to the rule that the druggist should concern himself. If he will only follow it in the majority of cases, he will find that he is getting properly remunerated for his services and that his patrons are receiving value in full for their

money.

MOVING THE GOODS.

To the Editors:

At the present time competition in the drug business is keener than ever before. Nowadays if the druggist makes a good salary he must be up with and ahead of his fellow tradesmen. He must everlastingly work on new schemes and methods for moving goods from his shelves to the consumer.

In the first place, people must know what you have for sale. This problem is solved, in part, by making attractive, clean counter and window displays. If you want to get stuck on something just put it underneath the counter, out of sight of the customer!

I will cite an example of doing business in this manner. We had about fifty dollars' worth of flashlights that absolutely failed to sell. We had kept these lights carefully hidden away under the counter, all the batteries were "dead," and we would have gladly sold the entire outfit for ten dollars. Finally a representative of the company came to town. We went over the stock carefully, gave him an order for new batteries and bulbs, put in a window display, and talked flashlights.

All the boys, being now familiar with the line, got back of the goods on display, and, needless to say, we sold lots of flashlights and batteries.

The public don't know you sell these sidelines if you keep them hidden.

Some druggists have said that goods are often stolen from the counters. That is very true; we had a five-dollar mirror stolen last Christmas. But we had rather lose several dollars this way than lock the goods up and wait for somebody to inquire if we carry certain articles.

We have found it a very good idea to have special sales, Saturday having proved the best day for these. Candy, tooth-brushes, toilet articles, some concoction at the soda fountain -anything, just so we have all the boys interested and keep on talking the goods.

And push the goods that bear the long profits! HARVEY E. TODD.

displayed in the window, only to come out with shirts, collars, underwear and possibly silk pajamas! After one has awakened from the spell of the salesman, under such circumstances as these, and begins to realize a thing or two, I am inclined to think that the next time he passes that window he will shield his eyes from temptation. From the standpoint of the haberdasher this may have seemed like good business. But was it?

"What doth it profit a man" to sell his goods and at the same time lose his customer? Selling goods is important, but serving the customer means equally as much. It seems to me that there is only one safe way, and that is to sell the patron what he asks for and then to suggest only those things that would actually be of benefit to him.

I have compiled a list of "group suggestions" that I have found satisfactory, when the suggestions are made with tact. For instance, if it is malted milk that is called for I suggest a nursing bottle, nipples, a pacifier, or possibly, in season, a cough remedy. The variations are quite optional, and most sales can be subjected to this treatment. Chicago, Ill.

HAROLD N. BRUUN.

A VETERINARY SURGEON ON CANTHARIDES.

To the Editors:

On page 416 of the October BULLETIN I notice that Wilbur L. Scoville comments on the U. S. P. preparations of cantharides.

I have used the drug as a veterinary blister since 1879, and from my experience I do not hesitate to state that cerate of cantharides (U. S. P. 1890) is the best preparation of the drug that has been offered to date.

I do not think, however, that cerate of cantharides should be offered for sale until it is thoroughly aged. I like to keep it a year before using. THOS. B. ROGERS, The Woodbury Veterinary Establishment.

Woodbury, N. J.

WHEN OTHER LANGUAGES ARE SPOKEN. To the Editors:

The United States is a cosmopolitan country, and customers frequently like to be waited on by a man who can talk their language. If the proprietor is German-born, as in my case,

and if a clerk, by reason of having lived in Mexico for quite a while, can speak Spanish, why would it not be a good idea to let as much of the world as possible know about it?

It struck us that it would, so we fixed up a couple of simple little cards. On one was "German is Spoken Here;" and on the other, "We Speak Spanish."

These signs have proved excellent tradewinners. I. LEWYN.

Houston, Texas.

WHO CAN TELL US?

To the Editors:

I would like to know the formula or composition of the liquid that is used in so-called sanitary closets. It is a sort of deodorizer and is also supposed to even dissolve paper.

By "sanitary closets" I mean those sold in places where there is no system of sewerage. De Soto, South Dakota. L. G. ENGLISH.

[NOTE. We are not familiar with the composition of the product mentioned, nor have we been able to secure the information desired. We understand that there is such a liquid and that it is sold in connection with portable "closets" which may be installed in the homes for about $25 complete. Will some of our readers come to the rescue?-THE EDITORS.]