Page images
PDF
EPUB

potent factor in bringing about this change. It has brought to the domain of pharmaceutical education the proper ideas and practice concerning elementary preparation and due sequence in instruction, and what is of equal importance, has largely emancipated the teacher from the tyranny of the dollar. The "fee" is then not the life blood of the institution. Surely with such liberty a more careful scrutiny of the qualifications of the prospective student must result. The editor himself has pointed out the pain and travail of the teacher in the effort to train the unprepared. It cannot be that such suffering will be self-inflicted.

The influence of the university schools on the old line colleges is evident to any one who will look. Note the change in methods of instruction; note the immensely increased laboratory equipments; note the lengthening of the term of instruction; and (be jubilant, Mr. Editor) note the requirements for admission.

As many of these institutions are also getting beyond the dollar necessity we may reasonably expect a life close to their avowed tenets. That we have some schools "doing business for what there is in it," is a matter for regret, but already these may be selected and their diplomas rated at "what they are worth."

The editor's wish seems nearer a reality than he thinks, but he does not place his standard high enough. The ideal student in pharmacy is the graduate in science. Follow the B.Sc. course in any good university with about two years' special training in pharmacy, and you have an equipment that would soon stamp out the "cheap and stifling competition" about which the editors complain.

Columbus, O., November 11.

LYMAN F. KEBLER, Ph.G.

I have carefully read your editorial, entitled "This is the Least that Colleges Owe to Pharmacy," and I agree with you in every particular, excepting what you say concerning the entrance requirements. There you would class me as a "high-soaring Utopian;" but I am convinced that the day is not far hence when a highschool education will be considered the only foundation upon which the supestructure of a substantial pharmaceutical education can be erected safely. Why delay the matter by substituting something of an inferior nature? Aim high! The lower the entrance requirements of any institution, the greater will be the number of illiterates who apply for admission. Place the standard high, and every young man who has the right kind of material in him will work to secure its privileges.

It is the general experience of our best educators that grains of knowledge sown in desert soil seldom bring forth fruit. There is a great deal in choosing your tools; a saw does not make a good razor, neither will a

pig's tail make a good arrow. Never put a round peg into a square hole or wind your watch with a cork-screw. Always put the right man in the right place and everything will go smoothly.

An institution of learning is not judged by the number of diplomas it turns out, but by the kind of men it sends from its portals.

Philadelphia, November 12.

SEWARD W. WILLIAMS, Ph.C., F.C.S.

Your able editorial, anent board and college requirements in the matter of preliminary education, is remarkably rich in active principles. Two of its chief alkaloids, in my opinion, are:

(1) "To the boards we turn for the only remedy that can search out and destroy the roots of the malady."

(2) "The diploma and the degree will never [certainly they should never] be the legal standard, until you have first standardized the colleges."

While the American Conference of Pharmaceutical Faculties is determining what qualifications are necessary for entering pharmacy through the colleges, an American conference of pharmaceutical examining boards should decide what general, as well as special, attainments are essential for entering in any way upon the practice of pharmacy.

The boards of pharmacy have it in their power to nip diploma mills in the bud, and thus free the colleges from such unjust competition as the elevation of their standard of entrance requirements might naturally invite.

Without a fair general education the prospective pharmacist should not hope to succeed in college or, later on, to enjoy the confidence of those in the community whose patronage would most contribute to his success.

Professor Searby's wide experience in college and board of pharmacy gives special force to his recent observations regarding "pharmaceutical cripples" who waste time and money fruitlessly trying to build "the top story" before laying the foundation.

The boards of pharmacy should make it known that, unless applicants are prepared to give evidence of at least "a sound grammar-school course or its equivalent," it is useless to present themselves for examination whether or not they hold a pharmaceutical diploma. When this is generally understood it will be obviously bootless for a young man to enter a college of pharmacy without a reasonable preliminary training, even if there are some institutions which practically invite him to do so. leges which are now doing the right thing deserve protection from unfair competition.

East Orange, N. J., November 12.

(To be continued in the February BULLETIN.)

A LINE OF SPECIALTIES.

First of a Series of Papers on the Druggist's Own Preparations- Headache Powders-How to Make and How to Sell Them-Formulas, Sample Advertisements, Window Displays,

[blocks in formation]

Every druggist can make and sell a line of his own preparations with profit to himself and satisfaction to his customers. In entering upon such a venture the first and most important point to be considered is the formula. The article must possess intrinsic merit; it must be all that it is claimed to be, so that it will attract and hold trade. Furthermore, it must be nicely dressed, since the appearance of the package has much to do with making a favorable impression upon the prospective customer. Indeed, it is a serious mistake to put out a package having a slovenly appearance. Any article of positive merit, put up in a form that is pleasing to the eye, is more than half sold. When offering a new preparation my advice would be not to make extravagant assertions, or to decry the goods of any one else. When presenting the particular merits of an article the salesman should be sure that every statement is true. Believe what you say, and it will carry conviction with it. Adopt the motto, "Money back if you want it."

ESSENTIAL CONSIDERATIONS.

A powder to be a winner must be effective; it must stop the ache after one or two doses. It must

tion upon the heart is concerned, and it should be used in any formula in which acetanilid appears. I believe phenacetine is the safest of the antipyretics, and I use it with caffeine in headache powders. I have also used an

[graphic]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

Window Display of Headache Powders-See text.

be, as nearly as possible, free from deleterious substances, and therefore it would be well for the druggist to remember that after the package leaves his hands it is beyond his control. The directions may or may not be followed, a fact that must be kept in mind when selling any pharmaceutical preparation. Most headache powders contain too much acetanilid, which, like many of the coal-tar products of like character, is a heart depressant; their indiscriminate use is unwise and has become a reprehensible practice. It is well to remember that caffeine is a physiological antidote to acetanilid so far as its ac

[blocks in formation]
[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

The cut shows a window display of headache powders that I recently made and which sold a large quantity of powders. The floor of the window was covered with green and white crêpe paper plentifully sprinkled with the ten-cent envelopes-not necessarily filled. Grouped across the foreground were easels supporting envelopes and boxes of powders. The background consisted of a cut-out picture made from three posters. The central design represented an enlarged box of headache powders supported by two cupids, the figures below representing all classes of people reaching for it. Suspended from the ceiling was a banner sign bearing the words, "A big headache stopped for a little money. Cooban's Headache Powders, 10 and 25c." From top to bottom of the window, on either side, cards of a triangular shape were tacked to the sash. These were cut from olive-green bristol board and lettered in white, as is plainly shown in the cut.

Window displays are one of the most effective methods of advertising your own line of preparations. You have no idea of what can be done in this direction until you try; the results are often surprising, more customers being gained than you had any idea of.

ADVERTISEMENTS.

Perhaps a few suggestions for a "dodger" or newspaper ad. may not be amiss in connection with this subject. Forms that should attract attention might be gotten up in style like these:

SOME PEOPLE

Say they never had a headache. Some people wouldn't know a headache if they had one. They say they don't feel well. It's all in the head! That's where the trouble is. But it may be the stomach or the liver that causes the trouble with the head. Generally one or the other is at fault. Our harmless headache powders will find out exactly what the matter is and fix it.

Price, 10 and 25 cents.

You Can't
Think Straight

While your head aches. No one should be guilty
of carrying an aching head to business when a
rational remedy is within easy reach.

COOBAN'S

Instant

Headache

Powders

For Headache and Neuralgia.

One dose overcomes a raging headache in ten minutes. Should it fail you can have your money back. It is a scientific certainty, and the beauty of it is that it is perfectly free from opiates and nerve deadening drugs.

Price, 10 and 25 cents.

Those Awful Headaches

[graphic]

You know what they are. You've suffered from them. Everybody has at some time or other. How often have you heard the expression, "Oh! my head." Those few words are the sign of intense suffering. But what is the use of it all? Don't you know it's nonsense to suffer this way? Cooban's Instant Headache Powders will stop the most severe headache. They never fail, and what's more, they will not harm you in the least. Contain no narcotics whatever. It is very seldom that more than one powder is required for one case, never more than two. Bear in mind, we are recommending these to you as being reliable, and we want you to remember that we will refund your money if Cooban's Instant Headache Powders do not give the utmost satisfaction.

Price, 10 and 25 cents.

A MODERN INSTANCE.

The Way a St. Louis Pharmacist Established a Large Prescription Business and Gained the Support of Fifty Physicians.

There lives and practices pharmacy in St. Louis a man-Frederick E. Whitcomb, Ph. G.-who can be said to have built a reputation and a successful business on the fact that he does not counter prescribe to any extent whatsoever. By declaring this policy in season and out, Mr. Whitcomb has gained the confidence of physician and public, and last year, as a result, he compounded 14,577 prescriptions. Despite this large prescription business, however, his store is rather small; though it may be said to be the very embodiment of neatness and successful arrangement. Νο advertising pictures or signs of any kind are displayed about the walls, Mr. Whitcomb's aim being to conduct a strictly ethical. and professional pharmacy; and on this score he caters to the physicians of the city. It is said that fifty physicians, many of them the most eminent in St. Louis, are numbered among his

And when, in addition, it is realized that he is a graduate of the New York College of Pharmacy, it is seen that he has received an excellent and long training, and that he is well qualified to make a success of professional pharmacy. Still, for all of this considerable period of experience, the accompanying portrait shows him to be surprisingly young, and not yet anywhere near the meridian of life.

Speaking recently of his strong antipathy to counter

prescribing, Mr. Whitcomb said: "Positively no counter prescribing! Yes, that's a fact. Some people think it strange, but the physicians understand it all right, and fully appreciate it. Out of justice to the physician, out of justice to the public, out of justice to myself, I have no right to prescribe, any more than I have to amputate a leg or remove an eye. "Suppose a customer comes in your store; you prescribe for him; he dies. Who is their prescriptions sent to him to be compounded. to blame? Why, you are, of course. You have no specialty is prescription work, and for this purpose he legal or moral right to give him a thing. If the coroner has a force of five clerks. renders a just verdict it would place you where you belong.

[graphic]

patrons, and have

Frederick E. Whitcomb, Ph.G., St. Louis, Missouri.

His

Mr. Whitcomb loses no opportunity to declare that he is firmly opposed to all counter prescribing. On his cards, envelope slips, and other advertising mediums, he has printed in red ink the legend: "POSITIVELY NO COUNTER PRESCRIBING." And he keeps constantly hanging in his window a sign to this effect.

For thirteen years Mr. Whitcomb was chief clerk in the store of M. W. Alexander, the prominent St. Louis pharmacist and ex-president of the A. Ph. A. who died two or three years ago. Aside from this long stretch of service, he has had about fifteen years of experience.

"I wouldn't let a clerk stay in my store five minutes if I caught him prescribing in a single instance. The pharmacist looks to the physician for his prescription business. Shall he then turn around and take the bread out of the physician's mouth by counter prescribing? No, no; if there were less counter prescribing there would be much more prescription business. I have proved that to my own satisfaction.

"Besides, the pharmacist is educated and trained to dispense, not to prescribe. He is not fitted to take the

responsibility of prescribing. I hope to see the day when physician and pharmacist will each travel his own path and give to the other that which is his due. Then will counter prescribing, self-dispensing, the tablet triturate evil, and other excrescences no longer exist to cause harm to both professions."

Mr. Whitcomb's vigorous and unqualified attitude on counter prescribing has aroused considerable attention, and it is not at all unlikely that he will present a paper on the question at the St. Louis meeting of the American Pharmaceutical Association next September.

GOLD PAINT.

How it is Made and the Materials Used in its Manufacture.

By W. A. DAWSON.

The formulas of the various gold paints on the market are carefully guarded trade secrets. Essentially they consist of a bronze powder mixed with a varnish. The best bronze powder for the purpose is what is known in the trade as "French flake," a deep gold bronze. This bronze, as seen under the microscope, consists of tiny flakes or spangles of the bronze metal. As each minute flake forms a facet for the reflection of color, the paint made with it is much more brilliant than that prepared from finely powdered bronze.

For making gold paint like the so-called "washable gold enamel" that is sold by the manufacturers at the present time, it is necessary to mix a celluloid varnish with the French flake bronze powder. This varnish is made by dissolving transparent celluloid in amyl acetate in the proportion of about five per cent of celluloid.

Transparent celluloid, finely shred

[blocks in formation]

Digest the celluloid in the acetone until dissolved and add the amyl acetate. From one to four ounces of flake bronze is to be mixed with this quantity of varnish. For silver paint or "aluminum enamel," flake aluminum bronze powder should be used in place of the gold. The celluloid varnish encloses the bronze particles in an impervious coating, air-tight and water-tight. As it contains nothing that will act upon the bronze, the latter retains its luster for a long period, until the varnished surface becomes worn or abraded and the bronze thus exposed to atmospheric action.

All of the "gold" or, more properly, gilt furniture that is sold so cheaply by the furniture and department stores is gilded with a paint of this kind, and for that reason such furniture can be offered at a moderate price. The finish is surprisingly durable, and in color and luster is a very close imitation of real gold leaf

work. This paint is also used on picture frames of cheap and medium grades, taking the place of gold leaf or the lacquered silver leaf formerly used on articles of the better grades; it is also substituted for "Dutch metal," or imitation gold leaf, on the cheapest class of work.

A cheaper gold paint is made by using an inexpensive varnish composed of gutta-percha, gum dammar, or some other varnish-gum, dissolved in benzole, or in a mixture of benzole and benzine. The paints made with a celluloid-amyl-acetate varnish give off a strong bananalike odor when applied, and may be readily recognized by this characteristic.

The impalpably powdered bronzes are called "lining" bronzes. They are chiefly used for striping or lining by carriage painters; in bronzing gas fixtures and metal work; in fresco and other interior decoration, and in printing; the use of a very fine powder in inks or paints admits of the drawing or printing of very delicate lines.

Lining bronze is also used on picture frames or other plastic ornamental work. Mixed with a thin weak glue sizing it is applied over "burnishing clay," and when dry is polished with agate burnishers. The object thus treated, after receiving a finishing coat of a thin transparent varnish, imitates very closely in appearance a piece of finely cast antique bronze. To add still more to this effect the burnishing clay is colored the greenish-black that is seen in the deep parts of real antique bronzes, and the bronze powder, mixed with size, is applied only to the most prominent parts or "high lights" of the ornament.

Since the discovery of the celluloid-amyl-acetate varnish, or bronze liquid, and its preservative properties on bronze powders, manufacturers have discontinued the use of liquids containing oils, turpentine, or gums, since their constituents corrode the bronze metal, causing the paint to finally turn black.

« PreviousContinue »