ing. Such conferences serve well the purpose of bringing about a better understanding between reputable physicians and pharmacists. Prof. La Wall was right in his assertion that physicians are anxious to become better acquainted with the resources and practices of the better class of pharmacists. This is true not only in the city of brotherly love but in every section of the country. It is a golden opportunity for the retail drug trade to meet the physicians half way and adjust the differences which have grown up largely on account of a lack of just such conferences as are now being held by A. Ph. A. branches and other local associations of pharmacists with leading physicians. The Retail Druggists' Association of St. Louis is carrying on the good work in the practice of inviting the faculty of a medical college to dine with the pharmacists at a regular monthly meeting. We understand this will be continued until all of the medical colleges of St. Louis have enjoyed the hospitality of the pharmacists. Good results are already apparent, and the practice is likely to extend to other cities.

Pharmacists Write Their Share of the Letters.Recent statistics show that the Anglo-Saxons lead the world in letter writing. Compulsory education, convenience in transportation of mail and distance between the letter writers seem to have little if any effect upon the number of letters written. An American or an Englishman will write a letter to a friend across the street, while a Frenchman will spend an hour hunting up the party instead of sitting down and writing a postal card. Great Britain derives the greatest profit from her postal system.

No doubt pharmacists write their share of letters, and we have increasing evidence of pharmacists expressing their views for publication in the pharmaceutical and secular press. Letter writing has many advantages over conversation. The permanent record which is made and the convenience in handling a letter in place of taking inopportune time for conversation is apparent to the busy American. In large establishments it is the general custom to dictate correspondence, even among employes, instead of going from desk to desk for personal interviews, as was the custom a few years ago. The development of the typewriter and the phonograph have greatly facilitated this plan of carrying on business.

The Professors Advocate Pre-requisite Require ments.—It is not surprising to find the professors in colleges of pharmacy working in favor of high school education before matriculation. The teacher finds it a pleasure to have students who possess a general education which enables them to follow the instruction, no matter how theoretical it may be. It naturally follows that teachers are practically a unit in their approval of pre-requisite high school education. What we are most interested in and especially anxious to have are communications from those actually engaged in the retail drug trade and employing clerks. Such readers of the MEYER BROTHERS DRUGGIST are invited to express their opinions on the desirability of

having only high school graduates in the drug trade and upon the possibility of reaching such a condition, provided it is deemed best to make the effort. We are also anxious to know how the retail druggists of Illinois feel about the proposition to restrict apprenticeship to young men and women who have had at least one year of high school work or its equivalent.

A Pharmaceutically Wise Judge.-Some months ago a Brooklyn druggist was sued by a patient who claimed $7,000.00 damages, on account of the druggist's having filled a prescription for compound elixir of white pine with heroin by taking the compound elixir of white pine and adding 1-24 of a grain of heroin to each teaspoonful of the elixir. The compound elixir contains morphine, and the physician intended to prescribe a compound elixir with heroin substituted for morphine. The pharmacist literally followed the instructions of the physician, and the appellate division of the New York Supreme Court has handed down a unanimous decision supporting the lower court. When physicians more generally follow the U. S. P. and the N. F. in their prescriptions, these works will be enlarged to include practically all remedies necessary in the practice of medicine, and such questions as the above will bother neither pharmacist nor physician.

Protect Us From Our Friends, is the way in which a prominent retail druggist and ex-president of the Ill. Ph. A. expresses himself when discussing the proposition to amend the Illinois Pharmacy Law in such a way that it will be necessary for persons entering the drug business as apprentices to have at least one year's high school instruction. The "friends" of the retail

drug trade are anxious to improve the condition of pharmacy and it remains for them to convince the trade that the proposition is in the interest of pharmacy. The MEYER BROTHERS DRUGGIST is anxious to see the question discussed in all of its bearings, and we invite our readers to make free use of our columns.

Cod Liver Oil is an important therapeutic agent and an article of commercial interest. The United States was the first country to use it to any great extent in the treatment of disease, and has continued to consume a large proportion of all the cod liver oil produced. It is strange, but evidently true, that the higher the price of the oil, the greater the quantity used in the United States. A few weeks ago conditions indicated low price on cod liver oil for the coming season, but bad weather and few fish have changed the conditions, so that cod liver oil is likely to maintain at least a moderate price for some months

to come.

Oil of Turpentine and Rosin have a common source in the pine tree. The prices, however, do not always follow similar lines. Recently turpentine has dropped to a low water mark in price, while rosin has sharply advanced. It is explained that the scarcity of rosin is due to an unusual demand and the effects of a large fire which destroyed naval stores in Mississippi.

STRAY ITEMS AND COMMENTS.

The Price of Quinine at a recent sale in Batavia was $7.13 per kilogram. The highest price ever recorded in any market was $120.60 per kilogram (2.2 pounds). "When Will the New Pharmacopœia be Out?”. This is a question found in one of our English exchanges. How familiar it sounds! Even the answer has quite an American ring about it: "You need not expect a new Pharmacopoeia for a year or two."

The Procter Memorial is now being discussed by pharmacists at the various annual meetings. It is proposed to erect in Washington a monument to the life and work of the late William Procter, Jr., who is generally recognized as the father of American pharmacy. Contributions should be made direct to the chairman of the A. Ph. A. Committee, John F. Hancock, 4 South Howard Street, Baltimore, Md.

Will Illinois Raise the Standard?—The Chicago Branch of the A. Ph. A. will, this month, discuss the subject of higher requirements for license to practice pharmacy in Illinois. It is an old saying that there is always room at the top. The higher the top is raised, the more room it makes for the ambitious climbers. Missouri is also raising the standard of requirements, but without registered apprentices or registered assistants, without even re-registration of pharmacists the state is far behind its neighbor across the river.

Perhaps You Were Not Sufficiently Well Posted. -This we say in answer to the many unfortunate applicants for registration who failed to pass the board of pharmacy examination. One correspondent complains that the board had it in for him because he is a doctor. Another knows that the board tries to flunk

every one who has not attended a college of pharmacy. Some are equally certain that the Irish stand no show with the board, while many claim that they have eviIdence that the Germans must conceal their nationality when applying for examination. To one and all, we would say, "Prepare for the examination and the board will pass you."

Local A. Ph. A. Branches Are Becoming Numerous.-Chicago was the first to organize. Then followed Philadelphia, next Washington and its neighbor Baltimore, with the Northwestern Branch, having headquarters at Minneapolis, the most recent in the list. The Manhattan (N. Y.) Association is considering the propriety of becoming an A. Ph. A. branch. The A. Ph. A. is the broadest and most comprehensive organization of pharmacists in America and probably in the world. Any reputable person interested in pharmacy is eligible for membership. William Mittelbach, Boonville, Mo., is chairman of the committee to whom applications should be addressed.

Sulfonal is a Trade Mark Name which the proprietors propose to protect, consequently Farbenfabriken has sued Lehn & Fink for manufacturing

the chemical and selling it under the name of "sulfonal." The patent on the process of manufacture expired last fall, but the manufacturers gave notice to the trade shortly afterwards that they would protect their right to the name. We understand that the case will be vigorously fought by Lehn & Fink.

"The Drug Trust" is an expression more familiar to the pharmacists of Missouri than elsewhere. In them the recent action of the attorney general of the United States awakens the memory of several thousand dollars which they paid lawyers about seven years ago, when the attorney general of Missouri attempted to show that the St. Louis and Kansas City organizations were trusts. No pharmacist or any one else closely identified with the drug trade thinks for a

moment of the N. A. R. D. or N. W. D. A. and the American Proprietary Association as trusts. If the attorney general of the United States pushes his charges, the expense of defense will be an item of consideration. We hope that the matter will become quiet before a legal battle begins.

The Three Years' College Course is advocated by a correspondent of the MEYER BROTHERS Druggist. Just at the present time, when some are advocating college graduation as a pre-requisite for state registration, it is interesting to note that the question of a three years' college course is also a timely topic. It is only a few years, well within the memory of the present generation, when contributors to pharmaceutical journals frequently discussed the question and doubted the advisability of attending a college of pharmacy. It was at that time claimed by many that a course in a drug store was better than one in a college. What have those pharmacists to say today? We wonder how long it will be before every pharmacist in the State of Missouri will be a graduate of a college of pharmacy, requiring a three years' course of eight or nine months each.

The Regeneration of Limbs in some of the lower animals is a very interesting phenomenon. Much discussion has occurred on the question of regeneration of limbs in mankind. Perhaps the most generally accepted explanation of the failure of human beings to grow a new leg or a new arm when one has been amputated is the fact that in human beings the bones do not develop with sufficient rapidity to keep up with the growth of the other tissues making up the It is pointed out by Dr. T. M. Morgan in leg or arm. a lecture before the Harvey Society, of New York City, that the time may come when it will be possible to adjust the rate of regeneration in the different tissues of a lost limb so that a human being can have a leg or an arm replaced. The prospect is not sufficiently bright to discourage those who are engaged in the handling of artificial limbs.

The Relation between the telephone companies and the retail druggists is becoming more perplexing than that of the relation between pharmacists and physicians, or the question, "Who owns the prescription?"

[Read before the O. Ph. A., May 10, 1906. Awarded first prize (a copy of the U. S. P. VIII.), presented by the board of trustees of the U. S. P. C.]

My first trip to Oklahoma was with Capt. Dave L. Payne's noted expedition, February, 1883. There were 133 prairie schooners, over 500 men and three women. This was my first experience in camping and eating salt pork. Owing to the cold weather traveling was hard, it being sixteen degrees below zero. Fifteen of us were taken in charge by soldiers and kept at Fort Reno nearly a month. That trip made me a confirmed

C. P. WICKMILLER, April 22, 1899.

lover of Oklahoma, so when the president issued his proclamation that Oklahoma would be opened on April 22, 1889, I lost no time in getting ready for the great rush. I hired two teams, and father-in-law let me take a yoke of oxen which I promised to sell and send him the money. Yes, strange I did it. Everything I went well for the first two days; the third, the oxen would not keep up with the horses. The party waited for me at dinner, and about 3 o'clock they were out of sight. Just about that time the oxen saw a large buffalo wallow filled with water; it was warm and they were dry, so they made a bee line for it. I started to yell whoa, gee and whoa-haw and everything else I could think of, but of no avail; when they got enough water they had to soak their hoofs. I waded out, but my broomstick with a sharp nail had no effect. I knew my friends were not waiting for me, and there I was, a lonely druggist surrounded by water. Imagine my feelings. Yes, I thought of my wife and baby, etc. In about an hour a stranger came and he had oxen, but he knew how to handle them so he got me started. At Woodward I gave a man $10.00 and grub to bring them to Kingfisher, that is, I gave him the grub and a promise of the $10.00 (only had $1.00). In due time, two hours before the opening, I landed within one and one-half miles of Kingfisher, used one of the horses bare-back to make the dash, so you see I left Kansas with oxen and landed in Kingfisher on horseback, got the lot I am still doing business on, put up my tent that afternoon, propped my sign "drug store" against it and did business the same day of the opening. The third day the wind got too strong for my tent drug store and down it went. I had to sit on top of it all day to keep it from breaking the handfull of drugs. At intervals I had to crawl on my hands

and knees to make a sale-no, not postage stamps. We had no railroads, so all our goods were freighted overland from Caldwell, and it seemed that each freighter knew the shape of an alcohol can, therefore I could not kick to the drug house for shortage. One time the soldiers came in looking for alcohol, but I got a tip and had none. Some days after, a U. S. Deputy Marshall came looking for the same fluid. He found about four gallons, took it to his place and let me have one quart every three days; guess I got the four gallons back. I had no distilled water in those days, but did not fail to charge fifteen cents per ounce for creek water. Those were balmy days to do drug business. I slept on the ground until one morning I found a centipede on my pillow, then bought a cot. I put up the first two-story building in Kingfisher, hauled the lumber from Edmond and Guthrie, had the first church meeting, first Indian dance, first lodge and other first meetings in Wickmiller Hall. I am glad that those days are over and that the younger generation does not have that trouble in starting, am glad the tent drug store is no more, also that I am still in Oklahoma and hope to be with you when this will be one of the grandest states in the Union. I thank you.

STRAY ITEMS AND COMMENTS.

Chlorophyl is better than anilin to color oil green. It is more permanent and satisfactory.

The Price of Camphor is likely to be maintained at the high figure of the present time. It has gradually advanced in price, beginning in October, 1905.

Who Will Win the U. S. P. offered by the board of trustees of the U. S. P. C. for the best paper presented at the Pertle Springs meeting of the Mo. Ph. A.?

The State Cancer Laboratory, Buffalo, will receive this year $21,000 from the state of New York, $3,000 of which will be devoted to meet the deficit of last year.

The A. Ph. A. will meet at Indianapolis, Ind., the week beginning September 3. Frank H. Carter is local secretary and ready to give any further desired information.

Women In Pharmacy continue to work their way to the front. The A. Ph. A. membership offered by the St. Louis and Chicago Colleges of Pharmacy were won this year by Misses Bettie L. Moulder and Ethelyn B. Arnold.

A Thoughtful Secretary is George Reimann, Buffalo, of the Western Branch of the N. Y. Bd. Ph. In addition to the usual information sent out by secretaries, he gives information about recent changes in the drug trade.

The French Labels and trade marks law prevents the importation of goods so marked as to indicate that they were marked in France. American manufacturers have been guilty of this deception and some of them have paid dearly for the experience.

PUBLIC EXPRESSIONS.

Read This Before You Write.

Contributions on subjects of interest to the pharmaceutical profession are always welcome. Write upon but one side of the sheet and spell out in full the names of medicines; never use abbreviations. The editor pays no attention to anonymous communications.

A Three Year College Course.-If a student takes one year in a high school and, in this year, he takes two terms of Latin and two terms of Physics, and follows this by a three years' course in pharmacy he is better prepared for his profession than if he take three years of high school and a two year pharmacy course. I hope the time may soon come when all colleges of pharmacy will offer three-year courses. [L. E. SAYRE, Lawrence, Kan.

The Manufacture of Brushes is an Interesting Process.--A reader of the MEYER BROTHERS DRUGGIST recently visited Dupont's brush factory in Paris, and sends us the following statistics relative to the work:

1. Workmen employed, 3,000.

2. Area covered by the factory, 60,000 square meters. 3. Area covered by the bones in stock, 10,000 square

meters.

4. Approximate weight of the bones in stock, 3,000,000 kilos.

5. Number of brushes made with the bones of an ox, about five in each bone.

6. Number of brushes made yearly, in bone 440,000 dozen; in wood 60,000 dozen.

7. Number of operations the bones go under before a brush is entirely finished, twenty-two.

8. Working hours, nine a day.

9. The use of the bones in the factory requires yearly more than 300,000 oxen killed.

Service in the Hospital Corps, U. S. A.-Referring to an article in your issue of April 1906 (Vol. XXVII, No. 4), permit me to refute a number of statements made by your correspondent, and based on ignorance of the service he attempts to criticise.

1. The men of the hospital corps are enlisted as soldiers, and are properly called as at present viz:Privates, corporals, sergeant and sergeant, first class, designating their respective rank and duties at the same time, the title "Pharmacist," would in no way indicate the duties the man is performing, as in addition to compounding prescriptions a number of other duties fall to the lot of the non-commissioned officer of the hospital corps. The statement that "the army maintains that there is little need of any pharmaceutical knowledge required from the hospital stewards," is so ridiculous, as to hardly merit attention, but in order that others may not be misled into the same way of thinking permit me to state as follows (my own examination.)

The examinations for the position of hospital steward or as called at the present time sergeant, first class,

embraces the following subjects divided into oral and written examination:

1. Oral:-Knowledge of army regulations, nursing, practical pharmacy (compounding and criticising prescriptions, identification of drugs, etc.), clerical work, cooking, drill, minor surgery and first aid.

2. Written Examination: Arithmetic, materia medica, including definition of terms, for example: "Explain as fully as you can the following terms used in medicine: Antipyretics, motor-excitant, motor-depressant, vaso-dilators, mydriatics, styptics, narcotics, antitoxins, give one or more examples of each name, the diseases in which they are used." "Define cumulative action, idiosyncrasy, how do they affect the dose and mode of administration."

Pharmacy: Embracing knowledge of identification of drugs, thorough knowledge of all of the processes used in practical pharmacy, preparation of tinctures, emulsions, compounding of prescriptions, incompatibilities, doses, in other words a very thorough knowledge of practical pharmacy is required by the surgeongeneral from the candidate, before appointment.

Sample question in pharmacy:-What menstruum is used in making the following tinctures: Aconite root, colchicum seed, buchu, nux vomica, digitalis, guaiac (amm. tinct.), myrrh.

Criticise the following prescriptions:

State in what order you would mix the ingredients and give your reasons why.

Care of sick and ward management, mess management, minor surgery, elementary hygiene.

Each of the subjects contain ten questions, calculated to test the candidate's comprehensive knowledge of the subject in which examined. The questions are prepared in the office of the surgeon-general, sent to the various stations where men are to be examined and are returned to the office of the surgeon-general with the written answers of the candidates and a report of the examining board as to the percentage obtained during the oral examination. The written answers are marked in the office of the surgeon-general, thus securing a uniform rating, and only the best men are appointed. Men who have passed the examination, but for whom there are no vacancies, are not put on the waiting list, but are ordered for re-examination when the next class is convened; in civil life, as many men receive their diploma as are competent to pass the examinations. The time necessary to complete the examination in the army is usually seven days of about six hours each day, in my case from May 5, to 12, '02.

Since it has been my privilege to serve with medical officers of the army for about nine years, I have yet to meet the surgeon or physician, fossilized or out of date, of whom there are a number in the army, according to your correspondent; on the contrary, from

my experience, since handling drugs (since 1900), it seems to me that the medical officers are a little too exacting, they require more than intimate knowledge of pharmacy, as the number of drugs allowed to the army is limited, yet the same effects are expected. I trust that I have made it plain that the surgeon-general insists on having good pharmacists, and disproves the statement of your correspondent, that the army contains pharmacists, the surgeon general to the contrary. The question as to whom the terrible mortality during the campaign of 1898 is due, is one which I am not competent to discuss, and no general remarks, or as the Germans say "Schlagwort," remarks calculated to catch the ear, but to convey no meaning, will clear that misfortune, while I have a few ideas on that subject, I can only remember how the volunteers laid out their camps, sinks on a line and in close vicinity to kitchens, no adequate regimental police pertaining to the sinks, no protests from regimental surgeons or colonels, who as a rule were too busy killing time at Lookout Mountain, or getting beer for their messes."

In conclusion I desire to state that the question of designation is one to which the man who does the work in the army pays little attention, we do not care what we are called, but we do care about getting a few more dollars, let congress remember that we are men, some of us of the same tastes as themselves, give us $75.00 per month and the same allowances as now, and call us what you will; while more pay will not change in any way my ability, it will tend to make men more content with their life in the army, and keep them there. One more statement and I will close my somewhat lengthy complaint. A civilian pharmacist, once licensed, can pursue his profession in the state where he is licensed until the end of time, not so the hospital steward. Following his original examination resulting in his appointment, he is re-examined as to his professional ability before his second re-enlistment, usually after five years, and is further subject to reexamination before any re-enlistment should the surgeon of the post where he is serving, so request. In case of failure to pass the re-examination his career as a hospital steward is over.

Trusting that the scope of the examinations, as outlined, will convince you that every hospital steward or sergeant, first class, is as competent a pharmacist as can be found anywhere, and requesting an editorial comment if practicable, I am, very respectfully, SamUEL MARCUS, sergeant, first class, hospital corps,

U. S. A.

STRAY ITEMS AND COMMENTS.

Run Your Blue Pencil under September 3 on your calendar. That is the date of the opening of the A. Ph. A. convention at Indianapolis.

Truth Comes High.-The rarest and most valuable book in the world is claimed to be the "Book of Truth." The late Duke of Devonshire refused $100,000.00 for the volume.

Benjamin Franklin advocated the use of indigenou drugs in preference to imported medicines. He wa himself a dealer in drugs and exerted considerable in fluence for the betterment of the medical profession These and other facts were pointed out by M. I. Wil bert in a recent paper before the Philadelphia C. P.

Carbon Suboxide is described by J. Bishop Tingle as a newly discovered compound. It has the formula CO2 and is extremely reactive with malonic acid. I slowly undergoes spontaneous decomposition at ordi nary temperatures. It is a dark red solid which dis solves in water producing an intense eosin red color

Have You Any Interesting Prescriptions ?-If so send from three to six taken from your files to H. A B. Dunning, 423 North Charles Street, Baltimore, Md Mr. Dunning is secretary of the A. Ph. A. Section o Practical Pharmacy and Dispensing. The prescrip tions will be used in the discussions at the Indian apolis meeting September 3.

Do Cut Rate Druggists impose upon the public: The Chicago Branch of the A. Ph. A. asks physicians to discriminate against cutters on the ground that such dealers impose on the general public whom they ad vertise as the objects of their charity and public spirit St. Louis no longer has cut rate stores, so the question must be answered by our readers in other sections o the country.

Shaken Into Good Health.-It seems that even the San Francisco catastrophe has its bright side. Some of the chronic invalids have improved in health, and a few fully recovered since the general earthquake shake-up. The medical profession has long recog nized the beneficial effect of fright, pleasure and other emotions. Some invalids have so little energy or willpower that it requires a great catastrophe to awaken them to a realization of their physical and mental possibilities.

Would Cheap Telephones Ruin the Retail Trade?Dr. William Muir, of New York City, points out that cheap telephones would cause people to order direct by phone and not visit the store to trade. Of course, many articles are sold over the counter to the visiting customer that would not be thought about if orders were placed by phone. We feel, however, that in the average human breast rests an inborn love for shopping which will bring out the customers even though telephones were as cheap as postal cards.

Are You Busy?—We frequently find people standing around or sitting about, telling how busy they are and giving this as an excuse for neglecting important matters. Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, of Philadelphia, is a busy practitioner, but finds time for literary work. "A Diplomatic Adventure," is the title of his eighteenth book of fiction. These works are in addition to five volumes of verse besides papers and treatises on neurology, comparitive physiology, serpent poisons and kindred subjects. Dr. Mitchell understands the art of making use of his time.