the taking of depositions with which readers of the BULLETIN were made familiar at the time, was brought to trial last month in Philadelphia. The defendants are certain proprietors, some of the Philadelphia jobbers and manufacturers, and the officers and directors of the Philadelphia Association of Retail Druggists. The jury gave Loder a verdict of $20,738, but it is expected that the case will be promptly appealed. The Cincinnati case, brought by Cora Dow, the well-known cutter and owner of seven stores, is still in the courts. One round of battle was recently won by the plaintiff when the judge decided that she could not be compelled to disclose the names of the jobbers and others who had supplied her with goods. To divulge this information, declared the judge, would be to "give the defendants the very opportunity to commit the acts which the Valentine anti-trust law has made criminal." Both Loder and Mrs. Goode (as Miss Dow is more appropriately known) have a good deal at stake, are well equipped financially, and may be expected to fight strenuously.

CONDITIONS

IN NEW YORK.

Several things have developed during the last month or two in Greater New York to improve the condition of things locally. In the first place, it is reported that the leading proprietors have caused the jobbers of the city to conform to the rebate and contract plans with a fidelity which has apparently not been the case in the past. It is charged in the New York pharmaceutical journals that these plans have in fact been respected more often in the breach than in the observance. Improper discounts have been given, and this has embarrassed the N. A. R. D. and the M. A. R. D. in their efforts to correct the cut-rate situation. Furthermore, we note that the jobbers have themselves formed a local association, which augurs well for definite and concerted action and for coöperation with the M. A. R. D. Finally, whereas last month we reported that the Peruna Manufacturing Co. had brought suits for injunctions against three or four of the large department stores, we find now that similar suits will soon be brought by the Piso and Paris Medicine Companies, whose contracts have likewise been openly violated, and who propose to put a stop to this condition of things. The Wells & Richardson Co., too, have proceeded against the Brooklyn department store corporation of Abraham & Strauss.

GO THOU AND DO LIKEWISE.

W. A. Hall, a prominent Detroit pharmacist, read a paper recently before the Wayne County Medical Society presenting an analysis of 7500 prescriptions which had been collected throughout the State of Michigan. A number of other well-known Detroit pharmacists were present by invitation, and the evening proved to be a very harmonious and profitable one to both physicians and druggists. A physician read a companion paper on "The New Pharmacopoeia," and the resulting discussion of the two papers, participated in with great freedom by both physicians and pharmacists, proved of considerable mutual benefit. mutual benefit.

The pharmacists sought to show

the physicians their obligations towards the Pharmacopoeia, and the latter were frank to confess that they had scarcely lived up to their duty in this direction. Pharmacists have often been urged to do as Mr. Hall has done, and appear before the local medical associations, but the occasions on which they have done so have been altogether too infrequent. The opportunity is one which should not be allowed to slumber. Such conferences clear away misunderstandings and overcome indifference, and give pharmacists a chance to impress their personalities and their aims upon physicians. The value of such accomplishments is manifest.

AN OHIO DRAMA.

A drama is being enacted in Ohio which promises most gratifying results in the amelioration of the narcotic evil in the drug trade. It will be recalled that a recent decision of the Attorney-General vested the power in the Board of Pharmacy of revoking the registration certificate of any pharmacist convicted of the illegitimate sale of cocaine. Six convictions of druggists have been recorded during the last year, and it looks now as if every last one of these malefactors would lose his registration certificate at the next regular meeting of the Board of Pharmacy.. Meanwhile the new power vested in the board, and the threatened use of it, have had a wonderful effect in reducing the illegitimate sale of the drug throughout the State. Particularly has this been true in Cincinnati, where a thriving business was formerly done among the "coke fiends." The Ohio State Medical Journal asks in a recent issue, Why may not the State Board of Medicine take similar action in revoking the certificate of any physician who systematically and continuously defeats and violates the anti

narcotic law by giving prescriptions to habitués? And the editor of the Midland Druggist, who is also the secretary of the Board of Pharmacy, heartily adopts the suggestion and declares that such action by the Board of Medicine would assist greatly in improving the situation.

A LICENSE REVOKED

In this connection it is important to note that the Illinois Board

IN ILLINOIS. of Pharmacy has finally been able,

after two or three years of activity under the anticocaine law, to revoke the registration certificate of an offender. The law permits revocation for the second offense, but the courts have held that a second conviction is not technically such until the cases have gone through the higher courts. This has meant a delay which has greatly handicapped the board and considerably nullified the deterrent value of the revocation penalty. It is to be hoped, however, that the recent imposition of this penalty in one case, and the threatened imposition of it in others, will scare offenders into a virtue which they would not otherwise adopt. In Illinois the board proceeds against the clerk as well as the proprietor,

and in the future a clerk will doubtless think thrice before he imperils his registration certificate. Meanwhile we observe that in Baltimore and New York City a number of druggists have recently been fined for the illegitimate sale of narcotics. Let the good work go on!

TROUBLE.

More or less cut-rate trouble has broken out in three places within the last few weeks. In Baltimore,

where the situation has been ticklish for a considerable period, one or two aggressive cutters have finally declared war, and the local association has met the declaration with a counter proposal of war. It will be a fight to the finish, and for a time everybody will see how successfully he can undersell everybody else! The plan is of course to "smoke out" the two cutters, but unfortunately the smokingout process has rarely ever succeeded. Chicago two or three years ago was most eager to abandon the plan after several months of disastrous effort. In Elgin, Illinois, a cutter seems to be causing considerable disturbance, while in Mankato, Minnesota, an injunction suit has been brought by a druggist against the county association. The peculiar phase of the latter situation is that the plaintiff is a man who, if not the founder of the association, was at

least until very recently one of its leading spirits and did much to get the other druggists in the county into line! county into line! This fact the defendants have not been slow to take advantage of in the trial.

TWO STATES DO THEIR DUTY.

From a very interesting paper which William Bodemann, a member of the Illinois Board of Pharmacy, contributes to a recent issue of the Druggist's Circular it is to be seen that only three of the 45 States in the Union provide their boards of pharmacy with funds for the enforcement of the law! The Massachusetts Board last year was given an appropriation of $7775; the West Virginia. Board was permitted to draw $500 from the treasury; and the Georgia Board was generously donated $100 for "investigating the adulteration of drugs!" We have recently reported how the Board of Pharmacy and the druggists of Missouri, wearying of unpunished violations of the law, are now voluntarily raising a fund for prosecution purposes, and how the pharmacists of Georgia took similar action some months ago. Will the day ever come when the State will see its duty-when it will realize the farce of passing a law and making no provision for its enforcement?

THE REPEATING OF PRESCRIPTIONS.

Trouble has broken out between the druggists and physicians of Kansas City. The county medical society has adopted a resolution calling on druggists to cease refilling or giving copies of prescriptions, and two or three of the more prominent pharmacists of the city are reported in the newspapers as having declared that the resolution was nonsensical and that it would not and could not be observed. Why would not it have been better for the druggists' association to arrange for a joint conference with the physicians and talk the subject over in a harmonious manner? If the conference could assume the form of a banquet, so much the better: there is nothing like a good meal and a fine cigar to develop a feeling of good fellowship.

the Pharmacopoeial title. Some criticism has been made of the revisers of the U. S. P. for their failure to use the trade name "aristol," and we find the editor of the Western Druggist urging that the chemical houses who now propose to manufacture the product employ this trade name. Otherwise, it is held, the original patentees will still continue to profit by a protection which has legally ceased. Incidentally it is of interest that the patent on phenacetine will expire now within a few months, and we may expect that its production will likewise be undertaken by manufacturers generally.

MOST ASSUREDLY NOT.

* * *

Apparently some druggist in the Buffalo territory desired to know whether he could sell tincture of arnica or similar products when, not in conformance with the requirements of the Pharmacopoeia, they were called by some such qualifying adjective as "especial," "extra," "compound," "Robinson's"

this or that, and the like. The attorney of the western branch of the State Board of Pharmacy answered with an unqualified No. The only instance, he said, in which a dealer may sell a product not in conformance with the Pharmacopoeia is when the customer specifically calls for it; otherwise the Pharmacopoeia is the sole standard, and a departure from its requirements is rendered punishable by law.

In the recent elections in Massachusetts seven druggists were candidates for re-election to the lower house of the State legislature, and six were candidates for election to the senate. Four of the

first group of seven fell by the wayside: the wouldbe senators were all gratified in their ambitions, and among them is the Hon. William J. Bullock, of New Bedford, a well-known legislator and pharmacist in the Bay State.

*

Governor Douglas of Massachusetts is manifesting a desire not to appoint to the Board of Pharmacy any one of the nominees proposed by the State Pharmaceutical Association, and a committee of the association, sent to voice a protest, was given three minutes to present its case, and was kept standing while it did so!

Just at this writing it looks as if the recount in Greater New York might land Mr. Hearst in the

mayoralty chair, and this is a consummation which apparently is devoutly wished by the druggists of the city. They are anxious to secure representation on the Board of Health, and they have Mr. Hearst's pre-election promise that he will coincide with their desires in case the opportunity presents itself.

The unique scheme has been evolved in St. Louis of publishing a directory of "deadbeats" for the use of physicians, dentists, druggists and undertakers— four men in allied professions! The question now is, Would such a directory be lawful? It is proposed to have it contain 15,000 names of persons who have failed to pay their bills during the last three years.

"N. A. R. D. Notes" is properly gratified over the recent confession of Montgomery, Ward & Co., the large mail-order house, that they are unable to

supply certain contract proprietaries. The contract plan is a sure cure for the mail-order house evil!

The latest convert to the plan is the Dr. E. L. Graves Tooth Powder Co.

The Proprietary Association of America has established a press bureau in Chicago for the purpose of disseminating information to offset the statements and charges concerning patent medicines emanating from such sources as the W. C. T. U., the Ladies' Home Journal, and Collier's Weekly.

*

The new Lord Mayor of London, England, is Walter Vaughan Morgan, one of the proprietors of the Chemist and Druggist. Mr. Morgan has been an alderman for many years and is a prominent figure in London governmental circles.

**

Joseph C. Hance, a member of the well-known Philadelphia house of Hance Bros. & White, died last month from a stroke of paralysis.

The Council of the A. Ph. A. is preparing to print and distribute 3000 copies of Professor Beal's admirable presidential address.

*

In Russia 37 deaths from wood alcohol have recently been reported.

Extractum Colchici Cormi.-While the method of preparing this extract has not been changed, it must now be assayed by process appended and adjusted to a standard of 1.4 per cent of colchicine. It may be worth while remembering that colchicine is a very delicate substance and easily destroyed by heat, and by the action of alkalies or strong acid. Furthermore, it is an exceptionally difficult alkaloid under assay because of its peculiarity of being readily soluble in either acid or alkaline aqueous solutions; for this reason it cannot be precipitated like most of the alkaloids, by making the solution alkaline, and in the extraction by chloroform or ether it is almost impossible to remove the last portions of the colchicine from the aqueous solution. This peculiarity of the alkaloid, together with the frequent scarcity of drug of prime quality, makes it somewhat difficult to prepare an extract which will assay up to the full alkaloidal strength required by the Pharmacopoeia.

Extractum Colocynthidis.-See remarks under Colocynthis. Extractum Digitalis.-Prepared by evaporation of the fluid extract to pilular consistence. What has been said under digitalis drug as to the lack of any reliable means of ascertaining therapeutic activity applies with equal weight to the extract and fluid extract of digitalis. While it is very much to be desired that some chemical process of valuation should be discovered, and while chemical investigators have on more than one occasion announced the discovery of a reliable chemical assay-process, such attempts have up to the present time proved to be failures. The only scheme available so far, which gives any fair estimate as to the true value of this drug or its extracts, is the physiological test-method.

Extractum Ergote.—In the Pharmacopoeia of 1890 this extract was prepared by the evaporation of the fluid extract to a pilular consistence. While this procedure was calculated to produce an extract of proper therapeutic activity, provided of course that the original fluid extract was active, it has been thought best to resort to some means of removing a portion of the extractive matter and incidentally to produce a more concentrated product. The drug is now extracted with a mixture of 1000 Cc. of alcohol and 400 Cc. of water. The percolate is carefully evaporated to 250 grammes, thus removing the alcohol; it is then further diluted by the addition of 250 Cc. of water, which results in the formation of a precipitate; the fluid is filtered, and to the filtrate diluted muriatic acid is added under the assumption that the latter will render soluble any alkaloids or active principles extracted by the hydroalcoholic menstruum. The fluid is then filtered, the filtrate and residue washed with water, the excess of acid is neutralized by the addition of monohydrated sodium carbonate (the ordinary sodium carbonate or sodium bicarbonate will serve just

as well), and the liquid extract is evaporated in a tared dish to a weight of 150 grammes; 12.5 grammes of glycerin are added, and the evaporation is continued until the extract weighs 125 grammes.

It is a fact which has been thoroughly demonstrated by us as well as by others, notably Dr. Squibb, that either a moderately concentrated alcoholic menstruum or an acidulated menstruum is required for the extraction of ergot, and we do not hesitate to say furthermore that the most effective menstruum is one which contains both alcohol and acid. The above official process may be outlined as follows: the active substances of the drug are removed by a hydroalcoholic menstruum, the extractive matter is removed by evaporation of the alcohol, the active principles are rendered soluble in the aqueous solution by the addition of muriatic acid, the inert residue is removed by filtration, and the excess of acid is neutralized by the addition of the proper amount of alkali. The glycerin is added for the purpose of maintaining the extract of the proper consistence. It naturally follows that an excessive quantity of alkali should be carefully avoided; in fact, it would be better if the extract were allowed to remain in a slightly acid condition. We presume it is expected that this official extract of ergot will be employed (in water solution) for hypodermic injection to a greater or less extent, but we do not think that this practice should be encouraged, as the extract contains some principles that are decidedly objectionable when injected into the circulation, besides inert extractive which through lack of absorption is liable to produce abscesses. Moreover, in the case of this extract, as with all preparations of ergot which are not put up in sterilized packages, there is the ever-present danger of bacterial infection. There is no reason for taking such risks when there are so many preparations of ergot on the market which are specifically intended for hypodermic use.

Extractum Hyoscyami.-Prepared by the evaporation of the fluid extract, assayed by the appended process, and adjusted to a standard content of 0.3 per cent of mydriatic alkaloids..

Extractum Malti.—Addition. It is certainly high time that extract of malt is given official acknowledgment, but the real demand of the situation appears to us to have been overlooked, since the Pharmacopoeia merely outlines a process for the manufacture of the product, but gives no means of determining its value. The market of the United States has been flooded for years with a great variety of malt extracts, some liquid and some of syrupy consistence. Many of these contain practically no alcohol, and others, particularly those manufactured by brewers, are neither more nor less than beverages. Some of the most extensively advertised and