PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS

By George W. Hague, Ph. G., Freeport, N. Y.

In Filling Capsules have a little powdered talc handy to dip the fingers into and thus prevent the capsules becoming sticky.

If You Conduct a Circulating Library, get a little advertising from it by putting two, three or four different counter slips in each book.

When Addressing Prescriptions to Be Delivered, always do the writing with ink; as it indicates more care and attention than if a pencil was used.

In Capping Bottles with paper caps, elastics are usually used to fasten the caps on. The writer prefers string, because it puts more of a workmanship finish to the bottle.

Once a Year every druggist should take a whole day off and go out and visit his brother druggists to get new ideas. The druggists who are usually in the rut are the ones who won't learn and won't look for new ideas.

In Making Tincture Benzoin Comp.-Do not atempt to scrape the weighed storax off the waxed paper, but throw the paper and all into the macerating or digesting jar. The paper can be taken out later after the storax is dissolved.

In Making Lemon Syrup, the yield of juice will be greater if the lemons are peeled and then cut in quarters lengthwise; then mashed to a pulp with a potato masher. This method would not be practicable in making lemonade at the soda fountain.

Unloading Dead Stock.-Nearly every drug store has more or less dead stock on hand which it would be desirable to get rid of. Proprietors of dead stock are always glad to furnish booklets and other advertising matter to help unload these goods, if they are still in business.

The Pharmacists Who Violate Laws and are caught and fined are usually the ones who do not read the drug journals. There are new laws passed from time to time, and published in the drug journals; yet there are so many pharmacists who know nothing about them because they do not take much stock in drug journals.

Being Familiar with Price Lists is essential in pharmacy. Physicians will frequently prescribe from pharmaceutical price lists such preparations as Elixir Anti-Asthmatic (Dr. Hare), or Elix. AntiRheumatic (Dr. Brewster). These and many other preparations are not proprietary and can be made up from the formula in the price list.

Determining the Weight of Ice.-Pharmacists frequently think that they are not getting all the ice they are paying for. For those who doubt their icedealers' scales may determine the weight of a block of ice by measurement. Multiply together the three dimensions of the block of ice, expressed in inches, and divide the product by thirty. The result will represent, in pounds, the weight of the block of ice.

Ordered by Customer.-Occasionally customers

will want some family formula compounded with directions on it. As these are not desirable things to compound, because they are often wrong in construction or dosage. In order to place the responsibility on the customer, paste their recipe on the bottle. When it is necessary for you to write the formula and directions on your own label, put this on the label, too: "Ordered by Customer."

The Proprietor Who Must Do It All is the one who makes his life miserable. There are many proprietors who must oversee everything that is done in their store-no matter how simple it may be. Such men make it very hard for the clerks and other help, too. There are times when it is necessary for the welfare of the business for clerks to take a little responsibility upon their own shoulders. Instruct your clerks, when something happens that requires immediate attention, to use their best judgment in disposing of the matter and you will back them up even if they did not do the same as you would have done.

When an Old Store Runs Down.-There are a great many old drug stores that have been under one family, or one management for many years, and, usually, all of the clerks received their training from the same source. When such a store is running down it needs a little new blood injected into the business. Perhaps a new clerk from another section of the country-one who has been educated and trained many miles away would put some new ideas into the business. There is danger in too much sameness in help. If the writer were to employ three clerks, he would not select all old men; he would not select all young men; he would not select all graduates from the same college; nor men that received their experience in the same store. By selecting clerks who have been educated and trained in different colleges and stores gives a business a wider range of education and experience.

A Test for Camphor Liniment.-Now that the State Boards of Pharmacy are taking samples of this common preparation, it is well for the pharmacists to know of a simple method to test it. The cottonseed oil is a fixed oil and does not lose weight by heating; while the camphor does. Carefully weigh into a small tin ointment box ten grammes of camphor liniment; the weight of the container is included, because its weight cannot be changed. This is set on a warm radiator for several hours, or until the camphor is expelled. The sample must be weighed from time to time, until the last three weighings are the same; which denotes that the sample cannot be reduced in weight. If the sample has lost twenty per cent in weight it is of the proper strength; if it cannot be made to lose twenty per cent in weight, by this method, it is below strength. The writer has asked three different authorities about the accuracy of this method. They all said that the method was accurate. However, one of them said that while the cottonseed oil might oxidize slightly, by heat, and take on weight, yet such oxidization would be too slight to notice.

CHEMISTRY

A Few Remarks Concerning the Poisonous Properties of Methyl Alcohol.-J. Böeseken and H. I. Waterman. Delft. Chem. Weekblad, 9, 694-6.-Expts. with several varieties of molds showed that MeOH when present as a C deriv. is less suitable as a food for the molds than the corresponding EtOH deriv. This is not due to physical properties like solubility, but to chem. properties, possibly to the conversion of the MeOH deriv. to CH2O, which is a poison, while the EtOH may yield only the relatively harmless, easily polymerizing acetaldehyde.-[P. A. Yoder.

The Effect of Cold Working on the Physical Properties of Metals.-W. R. Webster Proc. Int. Assoc. Testing Materials, 2, [13] VII.-Eight metals were tested for tensil strength, elongation, contraction, and in some cases yield-point, for various degrees of reduction by rolling, up to 70% reduction (i. e., rolling to 30% of initial thickness). The original bar was annealed. The metals are: Monel metal, Al bronze, Ag, cartridge metal, Cu-Ni alloy, Cu rod, brass rod, and bar Cu. The results are shown by curves. All 8 metals showed regular rise of tensil strength and decrease of ductility, with increasing reduction %.[A. J. Phillips.

Digestion of Casein by Pepsin from Calf, Hog and Ox.-W. Van Dam. Hoorn. Z. physiol. Chem., 79, 247-73. Recent literature pertaining to the identity of pepsin and chymosin is reviewed. Expts. on the digestion of casein by stomach enzymes of pig, calf and ox in HCl, Na HPO, and mixtures of HC and also of AcOH with NaOAc, in short in solns. of such H-ion conc. that some casein is still insol., show that the rate of digestion runs parallel with the rate of coagulation. In the digestion of casein in 0.3 N HCl the same differences in rate of digestion and coagulation are found as in the Mett expts. The products of digestion in strongly acid and weakly acid solns. are identical. There is no reason for assuming that the coagulating and digesting enzyme are not identical. [G. M. Meyer.

Peculiar Menstrual Skin Phenomenon.-Karl Rühl. Dermat. Woch., 1912, No. 20; Zentr. Biochem. Biophys., 13, 524.-The skin of many women possesses the property, during the premenstrual and menstrual periods, of turning a grayish black color after several hrs. contact with Au and Pt articles. This coloration is most intense at the places of closest contact between the skin and the Au object. The perspiration is not concerned in this phenomenon, since the latter does not occur during the extramenstrual period; neither is there any anatomical change in the skin. The most probable explanation is that the toxic substances which occur in the general circulation during menstruation are eliminated through the skin and here often acquire the power of acting chem. on ordinary Au alloys, thus producing a substance which is deposited on the skin in the form of a dark layer.-[H. S. Paine.

USEFUL NOTES

Removing Stains from Tea Cups. To remove stains from tea cups or other porcelain ware, a pasty mixture of salt and strong acetic acid should be used. The mixture should be applied with a cloth and after the stain is bleached out, the article washed and dried.

Making Holes in Rubber Corks.-In making holes in rubber corks much annoyance is caused by the punch making "tapering" holes and "running to the side." A little ammonia water poured on the rubber and the boring instrument causes the hole to become of uniform size at every point and the operation is accomplished with much more ease.-Scientific American.

A Putty Grinder.-Having a large number of windows to putty each week, I found it quite a task to prepare the putty. I facilitated the work by using an ordinary meat cutter or sausage grinder. The grinder will soften set putty and will quickly prepare cold putty. It will not, however, grind old putty or make putty from whiting and oil.-[H. G. Stevens Dunham, Que., in Popular Mechanics.

Improving an Oil Atomizer.-Finally, if one ever has a call for an oil atomizer and has nothing but the water variety on hand, he should not lose a sale, but should take one of the latter kind, providing it has hard rubber pipes, and with the wire which comes with it previously made red-hot burn the opening in the tip so as to increase its bore slightly, when he will have what is wanted. [John J. Davis, in Druggists' Circular.

To Remove a Cork from a Bottle.-A cork that has been pushed into a bottle accidentally or otherwise, says Popular Mechanics, may easily be removed in the following manner: Tie several knots in one end of a string to form a large cluster and drop it into the bottle, holding on to the other end of the string. Turn the bottle over so that the cork will fall to the opening in the neck; then pull on the string, and as the latter comes out of the bottle, the cluster of knots will force out the cork.

Omit That Bottle.-There is one shelf bottle that is commonly found in drug stores that should be taken out and destroyed without delay, viz., that intended for cod-liver oil, which is filled and refilled until it renders first-class oils unfit for use, the cause for which is well known to every experienced pharmacist. We make it a custom to bottle our cod liver oil in empty containers, not holding over one pint, thoroughly cleansed and perfectly dry. One of these filled bottles serves as a shelf bottle until it is emptied, when it is thrown away and another filled one takes its place. Thus we always have a fresh bottle open-and the rank smelling container is eliminated (or, better stated, prevented). By this plan we find a good use for some bottles that previously had contained products of questionable thereapeutic value.-[F. M. Apple, in the Spatula.

WORKING FORMULAS

How Glass is Frosted.-Preparation No. 1.-Make a saturated solution of alum water, and wet the glass with the liquid. It is advisable to have the glass in a horizontal position, as the solution is not likely to drain off. The more slowly it is cooled the more perfect the crystals will be. If desired, the alum solution may be colored with cochineal, and of course, the more solution used the thicker will be the crystals, says the National Glass Budget.

Preparation No. 2.-Dissolve two tablespoonfuls of epsom salts in a pint of lager beer, and apply the brush.

Preparation No. 3.-Sandarach, 18 drams; mastic, 4 drams; ether, 24 ounces; benzine, 16 to 18 ounces. This mixture is to be painted on the glass.

Preparation No. 4.-Frosted glass may be ornamented by those who can draw by choosing some pretty pattern of lace curtain; lay it upon thin paper and then with a pencil trace the outlines. Then, after making as many layers as you require patterns, cut out the designs at one time through the several layers of the paper with a pair of sharp scissors. Fasten the pattern with tacks to the frame around each pane of glass you wish to decorate. Tie up a piece of putty in a piece of thin muslin, leaving enough of the latter to hold instead of a handle. With this, dabble all over that part of the glass which the pattern leaves bare. When the pattern on the glass is dry, remove the paper and varnish the glass.

Preparation No. 5.-For etching or ornamenting glass in permanent designs the surface is first ground, either by the sand blast or by the ordinary method, and is then covered with a sort of varnish or strong glue. On being dried, either by the sun or by artificial heat, the varnish contracts strongly, taking with it the particles of glass to which it adheres, and as the contraction takes place along definite lines, the pattern produced by the removal of the particles of glass resembles very closely the branching crystals of frostwork. A single coat gives a delicate effect, while a thick film is formed by putting on two, three or more coats which contrast so strongly as to produce a large and bold design. By using colored glass a pattern in half tint may be made on the colored ground, and after decorating white glass the back may be gilded or silvered. Several years ago a French patent was granted for imitation frost ice, which can be applied to a large number of decorative uses, and which is described as follows: Potassium sulphate, 1,834 parts; aluminum sulphate, 3,020 parts; water, 4,848 parts. Another has the following formula: Ammonia sulphate, 1,288 parts; aluminum sulphate, 3,864 parts; water, 4,848 parts. Whichever of the formulas is used, there must be added to it 10 per cent of sodium sulphate. The materials are then ground together and thus liquefied. The mass has the appearance of crystal clear ice, and may be molded or otherwise shaped into vases, statuettes, etc.

THERAPEUTICS FOR PHARMACISTS

Trichloracetic Acid for Corns. This acid has been found to act particularly well on epithelial structures, and to be an excellent keratolytic, especially in seborrhoeic keratosis. Its good effect is supposed to be connected in some way with its behaviour towards fat. It is not strange that trichloracetic acid should have a selective action on fatty epithelium, as its near neighbor, glacial acetic acid, has a strong keratolytic action that has for long been used by physicians and by the manufacturers of proprietary cures in the treatment of corns. Glacial acetic acid, although it acts powerfully on the surface, both as a rubefacient and as a dolorific, is, however, far from having the profound cauterising effect of trichloracetic acid.-[D. W. Montgomery and G. D. Culver (Journ. Cutan. Diseases, New York, September, 1912, through Journ. Amer. Med Assoc.).

The Continuous Exhibition of Alcohol.-Blumenfeld in the New York Medical Journal of July 27. 1912, asserts that alcohol is beneficial in continued doses as:

1. A cardiac stimulant in all conditions showing signs of heart failure.

2. As a stimulant, whipping up the vital powers to stand a strain of short duration.

3. As a digestant, by increasing the gastric and pancreatic secretion and improving the appetite.

4. As a food, because it is itself assimilable and aids the assimilation of other foods. It is used in combination with milk or egg. By this action it prevents death from asthenia.

5. As a tonic in convalesence from acute diseases in the form of wine; a wineglassful after meals.

Soaps and the Skin.-Gardiner (Edin. Med. Jour) describes a research on soaps, giving the following as his conclusions: All soaps, from their chemical constitution, must be irritant to the normal skin, the effect varying with the individual skin. Cottonseed oil and other rancid fats are probably largely responsible for the irritant effect in cheaper soaps. The bactericidal power of soaps is nil, and even when combined with antiseptics they are of no value as germicides. There may be some reason for the introduction of such substances as sulphur and icthyol into soaps because of their effects on the glands and blood vessels of the skin, but clinically antiseptics and, above all, carbolic acid, increase irritation. There is no scientific basis for the addition of extra fat to soaps; when soap is mixed with water the alkali freed will at once unite with the superfluous fat. Rosin and impurities have no significance from the present standpoint, but paraffin and benzine derivatives, when incorporated with soaps for cleansing purposes, increase the harmful effect on the skin. The minimum of soap should be employed and well washed off.

MISSOURI DEPARTMENT

A. Shackelford is a prosperous pharmacist at Burlington Junction.

Dr. F. W. Gale is interested in pharmacy as well as medicine at Marquard.

L. O. Vandivort, of Salem, bought extensively during his recent visit to St. Louis.

L. E. Canfil is proprietor of Canfiil's Pharmacy, at Richland, and always interested in pharmaceutical literature.

Farrar Wilson, who has been located with Sam Farrar, at Lebanon, is spending the winter as a college of pharmacy student.

Emil M. Jungbluth, Ph. G., '03, is a member of the firm of Jungbluth & Christrup, at Benton City, and invites correspondence with classmates.

Hunting for Bad Eggs has been the occupation of the State Food and Drug Commissioner, F. H. Fricke, for some time past. Nine Kansas City commission men have been charged with selling "thirty dozen rotten eggs."

Lee Howard Witty spent the early part of the summer with Charles Duckworth, at Lancaster. Later in the season he was on the road for the Redpath-Vawter Chautauqua System, of Cedar Rapids. Mr. Witty put in one month with D. R. Brown at Memphis and is now again a college of pharmacy student.

Saccharin cannot be substituted for sugar in Missouri. The court of criminal corrections has sustained the constitutionality of the law forbidding such use. The decision was rendered in a case instituted by F. H. Fricke, Food and Drug Commissioner. It was a test case and one of twelve which are pending. The decision is not based upon the question of whether or not saccharin is healthful, but merely sustains the law as being constitutional. MISSOURI ITEMS.

J. B. Coats, Ph. G. '10, is in business on his own account at Dixon, and anxious to hear from his classmates.

ILLINOIS DEPARTMENT

A. D. Welch is a prosperous pharmacist at Ashley. Frank P. Coppage is a prosperous pharmacist at Mattoon.

James Wells and wife, of Chicago, made the trip to Cincinnati for the N. A. R. D. convention by automobile.

Herman Frank, Ph. G. 1900, is located with the Accurate Adjustment and Reporting Association, 613 Hartford Bldg., Chicago. He will be pleased to hear from his classmates.

H. FRANK.

A. S. Mitchell, of Springfield, is the new president of the Rexall Company. He was elected at the Boston meeting and will preside at the next annual meeting, which will be held in London in 1914.

Grocers who are violating the pharmacy law are learning that the board of pharmacy will prosecute such transgressors. The work began in Alton, where most of the grocers were selling quinine pills and paregoric.

Robert C. Luly, of the Rexall Drug Co., Alton, was one of the active delegates at the convention in Boston, this sum

mer.

S. L. Rogers, Ph. G., of St. Louis, is now proprietor of the Hull Drug Store, at Clinton. Mr. Rogers recently registered and is a thoroughly competent pharmacist as well as an energetic business man.

COLLEGE NEWS

HIGHLAND PARK COLLEGE OF PHARMACY. O'Connor's Commercial Pharmacy is a text now

used.

E. F. Leland, '13, passed the August Minnesota Board.

A. C. Heidenreick, junior in 1913, passed the Nevada and Colorado Boards during vacation.

The Pharmic orchestra is a 1913 addition to the College musical organizations. Its conductor is Jack Andrews.

Married, on September 10, Miss Bertha Keefe to Mr. Fred Hartman. Both are graduates of the College of Pharmacy.

This year's Freshman class "got away" with "hydrogen making day" better than usual-there was but one explosion.

Dr. R. L. Parker, Professor of Materia Medica, who has been doing Post Graduate work in Harvard, has returned and resumed his teaching.

The First Quarter officers of the Mortar and Pestle Club are: Fred Bryant, Pres.; Miss Munford, VicePres.; Mr. Laubhlin, Secretary and Treasurer.

Jose Prieto, of Cuba, has returned for his second year and brought with him the following Freshman students, all Cubans: Augustin Calzada, Rufino Aparicio and Carlos Vidal.

J. R. Chittick, Ph. M., Iowa State Chemist, is a special lecturer for the College of Pharmacy and Chemistry. The other teachers are Prof. W. B. Zuker and Prof. J. E. Galloway.

Dean Kagy and Dr. Parker represented the Highland Park College of Pharmacy and Chemistry at the American Pharmaceutical Association, which met at Nashville, Tenn. The former also represented the Iowa Pharmaceutical Association.

The Mortar and Pestle Club have discussed the establishment of a library and club room in Science Hall. Plans have been considered to neatly furnish it and install a good technical library of especial value to students of pharmacy and chemistry. Fifty dollars was raised within a few hours.

Where They Are.-Ralph Morrill, Ph. C., '13, Cambridge, Iowa.

J. E. Galloway, '13, managing Reppert Pharmacy in Des Moines, during vacation.

F. Steig, '09, Colfax, Iowa.

W. A. Steuck, '13, Buffalo Center, Iowa.

DOGS.-It is impossible to say when dogs were first domesticated, but some of the earliest traces are found on Egyptian monuments, which date back to at least 3,500 B. C. Even in those remote days the dog was highly esteemed. Ulysses 3,000 years ago was recognized by his dog Argus after his swineherd had failed to do so. Plutarch speaks of Alchibiades, who cut off the tail of his dog, and Myron, the sculptor, immortalized the animal by chiseling his image in marble. The Romans valued their dogs, and kept them for the chase and also as pets. Alexander the Great owned a veteran fit to tackle a lion.

NEWS FROM HERE AND THERE

Thoma & Son have retired from the drug business at Fairfield, Ia.

H. B. Dyer is with the Foreman Drug Company, at Foreman, Ark.

P. J. Suttlemyre is a thoroughly up-to-date pharmacist at Salisbury, S. C.

Frank Horner is manager of the Foreman Drug Company, at Foreman, Ark.

Harry A. Davis is Sergeant First Class, Hospital Corps, at Washington, D. C.

C. C. Bennett is located with Herman Lambeck, at 35th St. and St. Paul Ave., Milwaukee, Wis. David Willer, formerly of Geddes, S. D., is now attending Highland Park College, Des Moines, Ia.

W. F. Richie, Ph. C., formerly of Waxahachie, Tex., is now located at 301 S. Rockwell St., Terrell, Tex.

Dr. J. H. Daniel is proprietor of the Iliff Drug Store, Iliff, Col., being successor to Drs. Moore and Kerlin.

Carl P. Green, formerly of Atlanta, Ga., is now manager of the Greensboro Pharmacy, at Greensboro, Fla.

W. F. Long, formerly of Jewell, Ga., is now a student at Mercer University School of Pharmacy, Macon, Ga.

J. W. Johnson, formerly of Oklahoma City, is now with The Ozark Cider and Vinegar Company, at Siloam Springs, Ark.

H. A. Hill is proprietor of the Sauvinet Drug Store, at New Orleans, La., and one of the thoroughly up-to-date pharmacists of that section.

The Crowell Drug Co., Pittsburg, Kan., was recently surprised when the corner-stone of the First Methodist Church was opened and a paper taken out, edited twenty-two years ago. It contained a full page advertisement of the firm announcing the location and that the business of Dry & Crowell had been purchased. It also stated that Mr. Joe Dyke, "recently of Kansas City," was in charge of the prescription department.