compelled to give his business was worth $5000 a year, but the judge intimated to the jury that he didn't see why it should be considered so much more valuable that that of the manager, who was paid only $18 a week. The financial effects of the N. A. R. D. movement were indeed exaggerated all along the line. It was announced through the newspapers of the country that the so-called "drug trust" had mulcted the people of the United States out of $96,000,000 during the last six years!

SENSATIONAL

CASE.

* *

The sensational news reports of REPORTS OF THE the Loder trial, indeed, published in the daily press from Maine to California, perhaps did more 'harm to the N. A. R. .D. cause than the decision itself. The public always "goes up in the air" when the word "trust" is mentioned, and in this instance every possible change was rung upon it for the purpose of inspiring general indignation. The officers of the Philadelphia Association acted promptly in correcting false impressions in their own city, and an article, written by President Potts, was printed in all of the Philadelphia papers declaring that the 'real trust was the cutting fraternity and not the rank and file. of the druggists themselves, who were, on the contrary, striving to prevent the operations of the trust and to restore a "live and let live" situation in the retail trade. Retailers throughout the country issued circulars to their patrons, or sent letters to the papers, making much the same explanation; and we observe now that the "N. A. R. D. Notes" has begun the publication each week of a "Bulletin" which may be torn from the journal and pasted in each druggist's window.

THE ALCOHOLIC "PATENTS."

Despite the great interest felt in the Loder case, the patent medicine situation is still uppermost in the minds of druggists throughout the country. The action against alcoholic patents seems to be gradually widening. Ohio has. declared that it will hereafter consider as liquors and not as medicines all such proprietary whiskies as Duffy's, Shaw's, Sheehan's, etc., etc., and the Commissioner of Internal Revenue at Washington has practically rendered illegal and impossible the sale by itinerant peddlers of the eleven proscribed patents (printed in the BULLETIN last month), by ordering that such peddlers will hereafter be required to pay a special tax at every separate place where they

may make sales. Canada is threatening to follow the initiative of our government by considering certain patent medicines to be liquors, and by prohibiting their sale except in conformity with the liquor laws of the Dominion. In the United States retailers have until the first of April to dispose of any supplies which the Commissioner's ruling may not permit them to sell after that date. So far as the manufacturers are concerned the ruling went into effect January 1.

PATENT MEDICINE

LEGISLATION.

Meanwhile the attacks upon patent medicines in the magazines continue without abatement. The serial by Adams in Collier's is still running; another serial is announced for the coming year by the Ladies' Home Journal; and separate articles appear occasionally in such periodicals as the American Magazine, The Nation, and Physical Culture. The most ominous feature of all this publicity to the proprietors is that it will doubtless result in attempted legislation this year; and the Proprietary Association, holding its semi-annual meeting last month in New York, passed the following significant series of resolutions, by which it appears that the reformers will be met half-way and thus prevented from securing any radical enactments:

Resolved, That this Association thoroughly disapproves of any effort on the part of any persons or firms, members of this Association or not, to market as medicines any articles which are intended to be used as alcoholic beverages or in which the medication is insufficient to bring the preparation properly within the category of legitimate medicines.

Resolved, That the Legislative Committee be and is hereby instructed to earnestly advocate legislation which shall prevent the use of alcohol in proprietary medicines for internal use in excess of the amount necessary as a solvent and preservative.

Resolved, That the Legislative Committee be also instructed to continue its efforts in behalf of legislation for the strictest regulation of the sale of cocaine and other narcotics and poisons or medicinal preparations containing the same.

Resolved, That this Association urges upon its members the most careful scrutiny of the character of their advertising and of claims for the efficacy of their various prescriptions, avoiding all over-statements.

A formula-on-the-package bill has already made its appearance in the national congress.

the situation would seem to be something like this: The jobbers, recently forming a local club or association among themselves for the purpose of making united and harmonious action possible, have decided to adopt the rebate and tripartite plans for the first time in their history. The special discounts which have previously been given to retailers in violation of the two plans, and contrary to what has been done elsewhere throughout the country, have consequently been discontinued. The retailers are angered, and the storm has broken out in the M. A. R. D. It has, indeed, brought the efforts of the M. A. R. D. to a standstill, and has produced such general dissatisfaction that the organizers of the association have lately found it difficult to collect dues. What has aggravated the situation has been the action of the local jobbers' club in inducing the rebate proprietors to cut off the supplies of the buyers' club known as the Brooklyn Consolidated Drug Company. Mr. Anderson, it happens, is the president both of this organization and of the M. A. R. D., and altogether the conditions are very perplexing. The whole thing has been referred for decision to the executive committee of the N. A. R. D.

It would look to us as if the THE EMBARRASSING M. A. R. D. wanted to pin its

CONDITIONS. faith and confine its operations exclusively to the direct-contract plan, and as if, consequently, it desired no application of the tripartite plan and for this reason resented the eleventhhour adoption of it by the jobbers. But it will at once be seen that this puts the national officials in Chicago in a most embarrassing position. The tripartite plan is still used throughout the country, and heretofore New York City has practically been the only exception to an otherwise universal rule. Temporarily, the Loder case has suspended the operation of the plan in Philadelphia, but to suspend it officially in New York City, and likewise to sanction openly the ignoring of the rebate plan, would make it difficult to uphold these plans else where. But the New Yorkers argue that the conditions in their city are peculiar. The large cutters succeed in getting supplies at low figures, and the smaller dealers have previously equalized things somewhat by means of the special discounts afforded by the New York jobbers, and more particularly through the operations of the New York and Brooklyn buying clubs. To deny them these advantages

is to cripple them in their fight against the larger druggists and the department stores. Scylla and Charybdis, therefore, threaten the N. A. R. D. ship of state in Greater New York, and it will require a good deal of skill to avoid both dangers.

THE N. A. R. D. CAUSE.

Elsewhere than in Greater New York the N. A. R., D. cause seems to be proceeding very happily. In Buffalo a new price schedule has recently been adopted, and "St. Louis Club" goods which a year ago sold at 59 cents are now bringing 79 cents, which means an advance of about 33 per cent. Since the Boston convention ninety-one new, local associations have been organized, representing 934 druggists, and distributed over eighteen States. The financial receipts of the quarter have been considerably in advance of the estimate made in Boston: $22,992.17 has been collected, whereas the estimate was $22,125. If the remaining three-quarters of the year keep up the pace, the N. A. R. D. will become what the "Notes" calls "a one hundred thousand dollar a year institution." Turning to another phase of the N. A. R. D. work, we find the "Notes" still keeping up the "two, four, and eight campaign." The Shoop goods and St. Jacob's Oil have been reduced in price to this basis, while "Mother's Friend is meditating, and Horlick is doing some hard thinking." A list of "over-priced proprietaries," or "back-top-shelf" goods, is printed in every issue of the "Notes." As for the contract plan, finally, we note two recent converts among the proprietors-DeWitt & Co., and the Freeman Perfume Co.

BETTER 'PHONE

CONDITIONS.

The special telephone committee appointed at the Boston convention of the N. A. R. D. has, unlike many committees, gotten the strange notion somehow that it was created to do actual work. As a result we observe that the committee was recently entertained in St. Louis by the local association and that the slot telephone system is quite sure to be installed there some time during the present month. The committee is also in conference with the druggists of Washington, D. C., and much the same hopeful results are there expected. The committee is pinning its faith to the slot idea with a commission for the druggist, and one company in a city. Mr. Bodemann, a member of the committee, has recently sent a letter to the pharmaceutical press

calling attention to the fact that the "New York Merchants' Association Telephone Committee" has reported unanimously in favor of one company in each territory: two companies are held to increase the expense and the inconvenience of the service generally. Mr. Walter H. Gale is chairman of the N. A. R. D. committee, and as for Mr. Bodemann -well, what he does not know about the telephone situation as it affects druggists is scarcely worth looking up!

SOME COCAINE ARRESTS.

It is cause for gratification that the anti-cocaine and anti-narcotic laws were vigorously enforced in several cities throughout the country last month. Four druggists were indicted in Baltimore, and others are threatened with the same fate by the Board of Pharmacy. In Philadelphia several arrests were made by the police. The Executive Committee of the P. A. R. D. immediately passed a resolution in support of the step, denouncing the illegitimate sale of narcotics by druggists, and recommending that the culprits be expelled from the association when members of it. In Chicago some of the civic organizations have secured the passage of an ordinance involving the sale of morphine, cocaine, and their salts and compounds. The State anti-cocaine law, enacted some years ago, has not proved sufficiently effective in practice, and the druggists propose to have a new measure enacted at the forthcoming session of the legislature. Meanwhile the Chicago ordinance has been passed without their knowledge or consent and is in some respects not to their liking. This illustrates the point often made, that druggists had themselves better secure prompt legislation affecting their interests than to permit outsiders to impose laws upon them of a radical or unsatisfactory nature. Incidentally it may be stated here that an anti-narcotic bill is soon to be introduced in the national congress.

of the tax on all grain alcohol used in exported goods, but the measure introduced in the last congress to reduce the general tax on alcohol from $1.10 to 70 cents a proof gallon has apparently not yet made its appearance. The three familiar purefood-and-drug measures are again in evidence-the McCumber and Heyburn bills in the Senate, and the Hepburn bill in the House. The former two extend the meaning of the word "drug" to include "any substance intended to be used for the cure, mitigation, or prevention of disease." This is the feature of these bills which aroused the opposition of the drug trade at the last congress. The chances for pure food and drug legislation seem better at this session than before, and it is to be noted that the President advocated it in his annual message. The Mann bill has also been reintroduced in Congress.

PHARMACOPŒIAL AFFAIRS.

Some important business. was transacted at the recent meeting in Pittsburg of the Board of Trustees of the U. S. P. The most significant step was the appointment of a committee to make the preliminary arrangements for an edition of 2000 copies of the Pharmacopoeia translated into Spanish, for use in the islands of the West Indies and the Central and South American Republics. This is what might be called a scientific or pharmacopoeial adoption of the Monroe Doctrine! It was furthermore decided to present the professors of materia medica in the medical colleges throughout the country with complimentary copies of the Pharmacopoeia in order that both the teachers and the students might be made familiar with the work. The question of additional honoraria to members of the Committee on Revision was considered, but definite action was postponed until the next meeting of the board. This will be held January 20 in Washington, D. C.

is associated, and the lecture was devoted to a general review of the new Pharmacopoeia as a whole. Since then other lectures, given by different individuals, and held at weekly intervals, have taken up the articles of the U. S. P. in regular and systematic order. This is an admirable means of making the text of the book familiar to physicians, pharmacists, and students alike, and is most heartily to be commended.

MORE

THE TRADE.

Reference was made last month COMBINATIONS IN to the formation of several syndicates or combinations in the manufacturing, jobbing, and retail branches of the drug trade. Since then several other instances have been reported. The "Ideal Drug Company" has been organized in Chicago for the purpose, it is stated, of buying a chain of 100 drug stores covering the entire city: such well known pharmacies have already been purchased as those of Herman Fry and R. C. Rhode. Mr. W. A. Dawson,. of Freeport, L. I., whose name is known as that of an occasional contributor to the pharmaceutical press, is striving to organize a stock company with a capitalization of $100,000 to operate drug stores throughout Nassau county. In the third place, "The South Atlantic Pharmacal Company, Inc.," has been organized in Virginia with headquarters in Richmond. There will be a capital stock ranging from $30,000 to $50,000, with shares of $25 each, and the purpose of the organization is that of a coöperative manufacturing concern. Mr. T. A. Miller, the well-known pharmacist of Richmond, is president, and other names familiar to the drug trade of the State are found in the list of officers. The biggest thing in the combination line is of course the formation of the National Drug & Chemical Company among the jobbers in Canada: a detailed report of the later developments is given this month in our "Scrap Book" department.

Faculties," has just adopted the requirement of a four-year high school course, which will go into effect throughout the country some time during the year 1906. The Association of Colleges and the "American Confederation of Reciprocating and Licensing Boards" have always coöperated in a manner gratifying to the best and highest interests of the profession, and the latter organization has accepted the dictum of the former on the present occasion. The ruling therefore has all of the force of legal enactment. Incidentally, this case illustrates the extent to which the "Conference of Pharmaceutical Faculties" and the "National Association of State Boards of Pharmacy" may, in future years, work together for the betterment of phar

macy.

NEW MEXICO STANDARDS.

While speaking of board requirements and the like, it might be remarked that the practice of accepting diplomas in lieu of examinations seems to be slowly but constantly decreasing. The New Mexico Board of Pharmacy has just ruled that hereafter no diploma or certificate will be recognized and that every candidate must pass the examination. Incidentally we observe that the examinations of this board consist of ten questions each in the branches of pharmacy, materia medica, chemistry, botany, and toxicology, all of which are written, together with a quiz of not less than fifty questions on practical subjects, a verbal résumé of the questions covered in the written work, and the identification of at least twenty-five specimens. The Board has also ruled 'recently that hereafter it will refuse to grant registration to any applicant addicted to the use of cocaine, morphine, or liquor, and will revoke the certificate of any one determined by the Board to be so addicted.

New York State seems to have THE PROCTER FUND. come nobly to the support of the A. Ph. A. in the movement to collect a fund for the erection of a monument in Washington to the memory of Wm. Procter, Jr. The State Pharmaceutical Association has appropriated $50, the Manhattan Pharmaceutical Association $25, and the Kings County Pharmaceutical Society $25. Dr. William Muir has interested himself in the subject, and has gone about the collection of the money with an enthusiasm and a determination which are thoroughly characteristic of

the man. Circulars were at first sent out in Greater New York asking for contributions of $1 each, and Dr. Muir has now decided to cover the membership also of the State association.

DEATH OF A PROMINENT JOBBER.

The head of the largest jobbing drug house in Texas, and one of the largest in the South, passed away last month in the death from pneumonia of Dr. H. Behrens, of the Behrens Drug Co., of Waco. The esteem in which Dr. Behrens was held in the

trade was evidenced by the fact that every drug store in the city was closed during the funeral, and the druggists attended the ceremonies in a body. He was prominent in the civic and business life of Waco, was an Elk, a Mason, and a Knight of Pythias, and the founder and for some time the president of the Business Men's Club of the city. His death is a serious loss to the drug trade of Texas and to the commercial, philanthropic, and social life of Waco.

Reference was recently made in these columns to the ruling of the Oklahoma Board of Pharmacy that only registered pharmacists could legally sell perfumes, toilet preparations, condition powders, stock-food, etc. The Pratt Food Company has now brought suit for the revocation of the ruling and for $20,000 damages, the claim being made that many former dealers in their products have refused to handle them this year as the result of the board's order.

The Massachusetts State Board of Pharmacy has hit upon a unique plan in deciding to divide the State into five districts, and have each member of the Board assigned to a district and directed to call during the year upon every druggist in it for the general purpose of acquainting the pharmacists of the State with the pharmacy law and the activities of the Board.

The State Board of Pharmacy of Kansas requires that a pharmacist must have a stock of drugs invoicing one thousand dollars before he can secure a permit as owner of a pharmacy, and a judge has recently held that the thousand dollars worth of goods must be made up purely of drugs and not of wines, cigars, soaps, or other side lines.

If a resolution passes which is now being acted upon by the Council of the A. Ph. A., the next meeting of the Association, to be held in Indianapolis in September, will be called the "George White Sloan Memorial Meeting," and a special session of the historical section will be set apart for memorial purposes.

The drug-clerk association of San Francisco has 300 members, pays a death and sick benefit, enjoys a ten-hour workday, has a representative on the State Board of Pharmacy, and has the satisfaction of knowing that its members receive higher salaries than prevail generally throughout the country.

A drug clerks' auxiliary is about to be organized in connection with the Chicago Retail Druggists'. Association. An excellent idea! Why cannot this be done in other large cities for the purpose of drawing the clerks and proprietors closer together?

The Chicago Veteran Druggists' Association is striving to get all of its twenty-five or thirty members to furnish biographies of themselves for the historical archives of the society. The idea is an excellent one and deserves hearty support.

The Council of the A. Ph. A. has appropriated $500 for the publication of the monthly "Bulletin” which is to be issued henceforth in the interests of the organization under the editorial direction of Prof. C. S. N. Hallberg.

The manager of a prominent store in Greater New York was recently sentenced to three years in the penitentiary on the charge of refilling Poland Water bottles with ordinary distilled water for sale

to customers.

Last month witnessed the death of two men of some prominence-Luther E. Stevens, a wellknown pharmacist in Brooklyn, and Chas. C. Goodwin, of the Eastern Drug Company of Boston.

Three deaths were caused recently in Burlington, Vt., by the drinking of wood alcohol, and the druggist who sold the substance is under arrest for manslaughter.