BOOKS. The Helfenberger Annalen for 1904. By Dr. Karl Dieterich. This small volume, issued from the "Chemische Fabrik, Helfenberg, A. G.," contains about 250 pages and corresponds to previous issues. It records the data accumulated during the preceding twelve months from the examination of pharmaceutical products and the materials used in their production. Most of this matter is presented in concise tabulated form, with brief comments and proper references as to methods, etc. In a few instances subjects are dealt with at greater length and the results of original investigation are offered; though it is a matter of regret that research is not so much in evidence. in this as it was in some of the earlier volumes issued by the elder Dieterich. A COMMENTARY ON THE NEW U. S. P. A brochure entitled "Changes in the Pharmacopoeia of the United States of America" has just been issued from the Hygienic Laboratory of the Public Health and Marine Hospital Service of the United States. It is paper bound and contains 122 pages. The authors are Reid Hunt and Murray Galt Motter. Dr. Hunt is chief of the Division of Pharmacology of the Hygienic Laboratory, and Dr. Motter is secretary of the Board of Trustees of the U. S. P. and a well-known teacher in Washington. The brochure is known as Bulletin No. 23 of the Hygienic Laboratory. The purpose of the Bulletin is to inform the various officials of the United States Public Health and Marine Hospital Service of the changes made in the new Pharmacopoeia. It has been written primarily for physicians, but it will be of equal interest and value also to the pharmacists of the service. THE NATIONAL DISPENSATORY. We are informed by the publishers that a new edition of this standard work was ready for sale September 1, the date when the new U. S. Pharmacopoeia went into effect. By authority of the Convention it contains every article in the new U. S. 'P., as well as the explanations and instructions necessary to understand and apply the brief statements to which the official guide is restricted. The authors-Dr. H. A. Hare, of Philadelphia; Prof. Charles Caspari, Jr., of Baltimore; and Prof. H. H. Rusby, of New York-are all men of the highest eminence in their respective fields. A VARIED CATALOGUE. The annual catalogues of Peter Van Schaack & Sons, the well-known Chicago jobbers, are remarkable for their completeness and variety. It would seem as if almost anything that the druggist needed to buy was included in the specifications of this 1389-page book. It is neatly bound in yellow cloth, bears the volume number of 35, and will be found exceedingly useful to every retailer. The Literary Digest, published in New York, comes to the BULLETIN desk every week, and it is an admirable review of current history in the fields of politics, literature, science, religion, and international affairs. PERSONAL. A BULLETIN CONTRIBUTOR. Readers of the BULLETIN have doubtless noticed the considerable number of attractive window dis plays which have been contributed to this journal from time to time by H. M. Curry, and perhaps they recall also esting and helpful arthe exceedingly inter H. M. CURRY. ticle on "Show-card Writing" which appeared on page 152 of the BULLETIN for April, 1904. Under the circumstances we have. no doubt they will be pleased to see a portrait of Mr. Curry himself, and to know. something about the man. He is the manager of the well-known pharmacy in Ellsworth, Kansas, of W. E. Sherriff, a prominent druggist and a member of the State Board of Pharmacy; and incidentally it is interesting to note also that he is Mr. Sherriff's brotherin-law. A hustling and energetic business man, Mr. Curry is particularly clever in devising artistic window displays, in painting attractive show cards, and in following out aggressive business methods generally. BUSINESS HINTS. A Show Card. The show card shown in the accompanying illustration comes to us from one of our English readers -Mr. George E. Marfitt, of Leicester. It will be observed that the product displayed is "Creme Marquise," one of the toilet articles which has figured more or less extensively during the last year in Mr. Cooban's department of "The Druggist's Specialties." Mr. Marfitt has evidently put this product on his list of specialties and is advertising it. As for the card, the lettering was done in white with CREME Makes Skins orange shading: the white paint was made of zinc oxide mixed with gum arabic and rubbed into a smooth cream; the yellow shading was done with gamboge. The card itself was a rather dull green, and the color scheme was very harmonious. The picture of the young woman was a real photograph, an advertising specimen sent out by a maker of photographic paper. The card was 814 by 12 inches in size. Informing the Doctors of the Changes in the New U. S. P. In his first instalment of the valuable serial on "The New Pharmacopoeia," now running in the BULLETIN every month, Dr. Francis suggested that druggists might score a point by sending a letter to the physicians in their neighborhood calling attention to the changes in the book, particularly with reference to the altered strengths of many of the potent tinctures. Many of the BULLETIN readers have acted upon the Doctor's hint. Last month we called attention in this department to a circular letter which had been issued to the doctors of Gadsden, Alabama, by the Whorton Sons Drug Co. Since then we have received a considerable number of other letters, mailing cards, circulars, and the like issued by druggists in various parts of the country. Mr. H. G. Posey, clerk for Mr. F. C. Godbold, the well-known New Orleans pharmacist, got up one of the best letters which has so far come to our attention. All of the more important changes registered in the new Pharmacopoeia were very concisely and clearly stated. Getting After Roaches. D. Kilburn, of Quincy, Illinois, whose unique system of using the "want" and "personal" columns in the daily newspapers for advertising purposes was described in this department of the April BULLETIN, sends us some of his "personals" apropos of a roach powder which enjoys a large sale with him: MRS. R.-If I were you I don't believe I would move, as the next house might be as bad as the one you have-all you need to do is to go to 10th and Maine and get pkg. Kilburn's Roach Powder, it will kill every roach on the place.-MAUD. J. L. S.-I notice the roaches are getting bad Mr. Kilburn also sends us the following newspaper advertisement, which occupied a 24 by 21⁄2 inch space and was properly displayed: NO MORE ROACHES We have a powder which, if scattered around infested places and rubbed on walls and pipes, etc., where roaches are in habit of traveling, will kill every one of them in one night. We give you a written guarantee to give you your money back if it fails to kill all your roaches. Sold in Bulk, 50c Pound. The Location of the Prescription Department. One of the unique features of the Economical Pharmacy in Chicago is the location of the prescription department. It is seen at the left front of the salesroom as you go in, and extends down perhaps half the length of the long room. Only a glass partition, reaching half-way to the ceiling, divides the seven dispensers from the patron. When Mr. Mc Connell first started the Economical store he had this space occupied by the soda fountain. The prescription department was back in the rear of the store and it didn't pay. He boldly threw out the fountain, put the prescription department in its place, and found that the step was a most profitable one. His prescription business increased threefold during the first year! People like to see dispensers work, and, moreover, if they see a lot of them they know that a big business is done, and this is a fine advertisement in itself. Nothing succeeds like suc cess! An Ammonia Advertisement. From Mr. Cooban's "Items of Interest" we clip the accompanying ad. on ammonia: Household AMMONIA THATS' STRONG. In a pint bottle of our Household Ammonia there is the strength of about two pints of the common kind. A good thing to remember because ours costs no more. Full pints, 10c. And its all Ammonia. Not braced up with Sal Soda. B. S. COOBAN & CO.. PRESCRIPTON DRUGGISTS, 559 W. 65rd Street. A Drug-store Paper. R. K. Smither, regarding whom a biographical sketch appeared in the May BULLETIN, prints a little drug-store paper which he calls the "Buffalo Family Druggist." The number before us has four pages and is interestingly gotten up. An original parable is contributed by Mr. Smither himself, and is very cleverly conceived and executed. Its theme is substitution, and the title is "The Parable of Jestezgud, the Son of Fayker, who was Hoist by his own Petard." Pushing the Sale of Stationery. Hirschy & Losch, of Kewanee, Illinois, send us a pretty good advertisement of stationery. It is printed on a sheet of the very note paper which is the subject of the advertisement, is enclosed in an envelope to match, and then sent out under two-cent postage as any private letter would be. The advertising announcement is printed on the third page of the double sheet of paper, and is as follows: In addition to our large assortment of high art Remind us to show them to you when you are in. The value of an advertisement like this rests in the fact that the very thing which is being advertised is set before the recipient so that he knows what is being offered him. The impression is thus made very definite and is quite likely to be followed up by a sale. PRACTICAL PHARMACY. Filling Small Bottles. Joseph F. Hostelley (Druggists Circular) illustrates a device by means of which small bottles may be advantageously filled from a large container. The neck of the latter is fitted with a twice perforated stopper. Through one perforation passes a straight glass tube that nearly touches the bottom of the bottle and projects about one-half inch beyond the stopper. The other hole is fitted with a short piece of glass tubing that curves from the stopper toward the shoulder of the bottle. To this bent glass tube a piece of rubber tubing is attached, of sufficient length to reach to the base of the bottle, terminating in a short piece of bent glass tubing. Now, when the container is inverted on a retort stand or other suitable support, small bottles may be readily filled by lowering the end of the filling tube below the level of the liquid in the container, the flow being arrested by raising the end of the tube above the level of the liquid. The bent tube of glass at the end makes the filling of the bottles an easy matter, and during an interruption of the work the tube may be hung over some suitable support high enough to prevent the flow, or a pinchcock may be used to the same end. The long glass tube within the container is to supply air. When the stopper is inserted just before the container is to be put in position, a finger is held over the projecting end of this tube to keep the liquid from entering the tube, then the bottle is quickly inverted and the finger removed. In this way none of the contents passes out through the air tube. After an operation the bottle filling attachment is carefully put away assembled ready for the next work of the kind. The Use of Copper in Fighting Typhoid Fever Infection. It has been found during the last two or three years that copper sulphate has an almost miraculous effect in destroying typhoid organisms in water. Experiments carried out on a large scale have shown that with very little trouble and at a very small expense the whole water-supply of a city can be robbed of its typhoid contamination. This is a fact of supreme importance when we consider that nearly all cases of typhoid fever can be traced to an infected water-supply. Prof. Henry Kraemer read a valuable article recently at one of the monthly meetings of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy on the "Use of Copper in Destroying Typhoid Organism and the Effects of Copper on Man." The conclusions of Prof. Kraemer's paper were as follows: 1. It is pretty well established that the typhoid organism is disseminated not only through water, but also through air and food, and may retain its vitality for a considerable period of time. 2. Typhoid organisms in water are eliminated by filtration, boiling, and certain biochemical methods. Of the latter, the use of copper, as proposed by Moore and Kellerman, is probably the most efficient and at the same time most practicable. 3. While exceedingly minute quantities of copper in solution are toxic to certain unicellular organisms, as bacteria, it is safe to assume that the higher plants and animals, including man, are unaffected by solution containing the same or even larger amounts of copper. 4. There being a number of factors which tend to eliminate copper from its solutions, it is hardly likely that there would be any copper in solution by the time the water from a reservoir reached the consumer if the treatment of the reservoir were in competent hands. 5. Many plants contain relatively large quantities of copper, and when these are used as food some of the copper is taken up by the animal organism, but there are no records of any ill effects from copper so consumed. referred to. The cork with the faucet inserted was then pushed firmly into the mouth and the bottle, inverted, placed in a position prepared for its reception by boring a hole in a stout shelf. Around the body of the bottle a strap was placed, fastened at each end to the back of the shelf to hold the apparatus firmly in its place. The undissolved lime settles into the neck and shoulders of the bottle, and the glass tube extends up through it into the clear liquor. When lime water is to be dispensed the cork is removed from the air-hole, the faucet opened, and there is no disturbance of the liquid; there is never any worry over finding an opaque liquid when a customer calls, and furthermore, there is no chance to fail to note when the stock is running low. Boiling Points. According to the "Standard Formulary" saturated aqueous solutions of the following substances boil at the respective temperatures given: Sodium acetate Sodium nitrate B. E. Pritchard had a paper on lime water at this year's meeting of the Pennsylvania Pharmaceutical Association. In it he told how he had made an excellent lime water container from a five-gallon bottle. A small hole was drilled in the side of the bottle close to the bottom by means of the use of a machinist's steel piercing drill kept moistened with turpentine. This was to be used merely as an airhole. Then a large, perfect cork was put in the neck of the bottle, through this in turn was inserted a brass faucet, and to the inner end of the faucet, by the use of a sleeve cut from a piece of rubber tubing, a glass tube was attached of sufficient length to extend several inches into the bottle. The lime water, made after the regular U. S. P. process, was then put into the bottle, first, of course, inserting a cork into the small air-hole previously Potassium nitrate Sodium sulphate Glycerin and Tincture of Iron Perchloride in Combination. Why does the addition of glycerin to tinct. ferri perchlor. cause darkening? asked Donald McEwan recently at a meeting in Edinburgh, Scotland, of the Chemists,' Assistants', and Apprentices' Association. Many other substances do this to ferric solutions— for example, water and syrup. Ferric chloride is yellow, but on dilution darkens from partial hydrolysis into red-brown colored hydroxide and hydrochloric acid. The ferric hydroxide, being colloidal, remains in solution-for a time at least. When glycerin or syrup is the diluting agent there is also a partial combination. Ferric hydroxide cannot be completely precipitated by alkalies in presence of glycerin or syrup. The solvent action of ferric solution on quinine sulphate is due to the same cause, and it also partly accounts for the coloring of ferrous syrups, |