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ST. LOUIS LOCALS.

The Pure Food and Drug Law and its consequences were discussed in an address by Dr. Charles E. Caspari, before the Alumni of the St. Louis Callege of Pharmacy, November 30. The attendance was large and the evening one of instruction for all who were present.

St. Louis Jobbers and Manufacturers' Agents express themselves as highly pleased with the fall season and the prospects for holiday trade, the agents congratulating themselves that the trade shows so little signs of dropping off at the usually dull season. Especially at this time of the year are salesmen and others likely to give themselves up to hobbies, after the hard pull to bring the trade through the summer months in good shape. One question that is putting the whole trade into a "blue funk" is the pure food and drugs law. The generalities have to a large extent been mastered, but what of the details? Just where does the small trader who buys cough syrup and pills under his own name come in, and how about the new labels?

"While the trade in the city might be better, the Southwest is doing nobly by Sharp & Dohme," said Robert L. Winchester, the firm's St. Louis agent. "But more acute than the trade question with us just at present is the pure food law in its many ramifications. The manufacturers do not seem to know just where we stand as to new labels. I shudder every time I look at our shelves full of fluidextracts and wonder if I will be forced to install a labeling bureau. The job looks larger every time I look at it. Thank fortune, most of our other goods are so labeled that few changes will be necessary. Then there is the pill manufacturer and the druggist who buy private formula preparations under their own names. They want to know where they stand, and we are not able to clear up all points.'

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J. P. Cobb, of H. K. Mulford Co., and his assistant, Mr. Williams, take very much the same view of the matter but have gone a little further in the matter of studying the relabel question. "It means work and lots of it," said Mr. Williams, "but it looks very much like we were up against it."

But there are others who visit the druggists who do not let these things worry them very much. For instance Mr. Spurney, the Coca Cola man. He finds the greatest of pleasure in contemplating the fact that his year's salary is not figured on the business done between the time of the first frost and the holidays. "There are brighter days coming," he says "and after the trade drinks its fill of coffee and chocolate, there are brighter days coming." Charles L. Wagner, of Lippincott's, and also known as the druggists' comedian, likes a few dull weeks. He uses the spare time to think up new jokes for the theatrical season that is coming soon. And R. E. Hayes quits talking Walrus Fountains so strong and reflects on the rewards of the

inventor. He has recently placed the Hayes Automa

M. C. H. ARENDES.

tic Soda Table and Show Case on the market. Its special advantage is that it folds up the chairs under it when not in use.

"Quote Castoria and infant foods on the up grade, demand strong," said Rudolph C. Ritter, of Merrill's city force. But M. C. H. Arendes smiled. "Mike" lives on the South side where they believe in large families and there are seven boys and girls at his house, while this boy is the

first at the Ritter household. W. H. Kahre, Ph. G., Eli Lilly's elongated city salesman, has the cocked hat

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fever and is said to be beyond hope. One reason is that his average leads the individual scores of his comrades easily as he looks over their heads in actual life. It is a fight for second place now, all conceding Kahre first. Kahre also has an idea that St. Louis has the best retail druggists five at cocked hat bowling in the country and is issuing verbal challenges. There are two reasons for the challenge; one is that a verbal challenge cannot be heard far, another, that only St. Louis druggists roll cocked hat. Charles Breedlove, of La Belle, Mo., who represents Merrill Drug Co. in Northern Missouri, came in the

W. H. KAHRE.

other day to see that J. W. Clark, of Clinton, Mo., did not overlook any items in his opening stock and while in town scattered considerable sunshine with his rosy predictions of the fall and winter trade to be expected from his part of the country. Good crops, good prices for Missouri's products and the optimistic outlook on the part of the producers, who are necessarily the buyers, he says, contribute to the prospect.

St. Louis men of the wholesale trade have some football cranks among them, but Dr. Frank J. Minnich, of Merrills, is not of that kind. "Doc" went to a football game and saw St. Louis University slaughter Kansas University. It was his first game and he says that with reasonable control of his mind as he grows older, it will be his last. "Why, I know of at least two theaters that give Saturday afternoon matinees that suit me better," he said. "It was cruel, so cruel. I like

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DR. FRANK J. MINNICH.

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ers Drug Co. and one of which the employes are frequently reminded by the Pure Food and Drugs Act. This firm has for years been placing its motto to the front and offering prizes at pharmaceutical association meetings for papers on the subject of purity and pharmacopoeial quirements. Of course the goods must now be labeled to conform with the new law, but President Theo. F. Meyer of the firm says: "Some of our labels must be changed, but our goods have long conformed to the U. S. P. and the N. F. which are the standards of the new law." One of the busiest men in the Meyer Brothers Drug Co. is Chester E. Cochrane, who is one of the oldest wholesale drug men of the city and at the same time one of the youngest in appearance. He has charge of the Outfitting Department and is hustling in the interest of numerous customers who are anxious to have their new outfits before the end of the old year.

CHESTER E. COCHRANE.

The Trouble with our pure food legislation seems to be that each manufacturer wants an extremely severe ruling to affect all other lines, and an extremely lenient ruling covering his own business.

The National Formulary and the U. S. Pharmacopoeia will be the subject for discussion at the meeting of the St. Louis Medical Society, January 22. Other

medical organizations and the pharmacists of St. Louis will be invited as guests. The meeting will be held at the Medical Auditorium, 3525 Pine Street. The program has not as yet been completed, but is in the hands of a committee of which Drs. J. C. Falk and Louis H. Behrens are members.

Edmund P. Walsh, chairman of the Board of Trustees of the St. Louis College of Pharmacy, has been fifty Court House. years in service at the City His associ

ates honored him November 4, which was the anniversary of the day he became clerk in the "Old Land

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EDMUND P.WALSH.

Court," then presided over by Charles D. Lord. His present duties are to examine the record books of court room clerks and ferret out mistakes. Although seventy-two years of age Mr. Walsh enjoys the best of health. He was born on Olive Street, between Second and Main, May 26, 1832. He has been associated with the college of pharmacy from its beginning in 1864.

Fred Herzog is in charge of the Fricke-Hahn store at 2300 Salisbury Street.

Theo. Ellermann, Ph. G., is now pleasantly located at Gerber's Pharmacy, Vanderventer Avenue and North Market Street.

W. A. Bryant located at No. 5001 Page Avenue, is one of the prosperous and thoroughly up-to-date pharmacists of St. Louis.

Charles Goessler, Ph. G., has made good use of his time since he graduated and is pleasantly located at 2519 South Broadway.

F. W. Koch, Ph. G., is much pleased with his situation at E. C. Knippenberg's pharmacy, No. 2854 Lafayette Avenue, city.

The Alumni Ball at Westminster Hall, November 7, was a very enjoyable affair. A list of the committees was published in our November issue.

J. W. Gayle the genial secretary of the Kentucky Board of Pharmacy, is moving his store at Frankfort into new and more commodious quarters.

Malcolm Galbraith, formerly of the Kansas City branch of H. K. Mulford Co., has taken charge of the St. Louis branch, to succeed John P. Cobb, who is now with E. R. Squibb & Sons, of New York City.

The St. Louis Chemical Society devoted the November meeting to a consideration of the Pharmacopoeia and the National Formulary as standards for the new Pure Drug and Food Law. The society is made up largely of technical chemists, many of whom have recently had occasion to study the Pharmacopoeia for the first time. The address on the subject was made by Dr. H. M. Whelpley.

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STRAY ITEMS AND COMMENTS.

This is an Age of Progress.-We have the horseless carriage, the smokeless smokestack and the payless insurance companies.

Boarding House Owners will be sorry to read that news item about $105,600 worth of prunes being destroyed in a recent fire in San Jose, Cal.

Have You the National Formulary?—It is the standard adopted by the pure food and drug law. It is not safe for a pharmacist to attempt to do business without a copy in his library.

North Dakota Had a Pure Food Law of its own when the national bill became a law. The commissioners of the state have decided to let the national law supercede the state enactment as far as it relates to pure drugs.

We Now See English Pharmacists as others see them; a few years ago the British pharmaceutical journals published horrid half tone blotches over the names of pharmacists. Today the same periodicals give good pictures and many of them.

Gelatine comes under the meat inspection law when it is made from edible portions of the animal. If manufactured from hoofs, hides and other parts not used as a food, the gelatine will not be amenable to the law-so rules the Department of Agriculture.

An Imperial Pharmacopoeia.-A National Pharmacopoeia seems to be out of the question, but the British Government is considering the propriety of using an Imperial Pharmacopoeia adapted to the needs of all the nations included in the British Dominions.

The Faculty and Graduating Class (1904) of the Pharmacy Department of the Syrian Protestant University, of Beyrout, photograph contributed to the MEYER BROTHERS DRUGGIST, by G. Azab, of St. Louis.

The Death of Col. T. Roberts Baker. Since I last wrote you, another of my warm personal friends, an accomplished pharmacist, a man of strict integrity and a worthy member of the American Pharmaceutical Association, died in the City of Richmond, Va. Mr. T.

Roberts Baker joined the A. Ph. A., in 1873 at the meeting in Richmond, Va. At the meeting in Cleveland, the year before, the association voted to hold the next annual meeting in the South, and without invitation, appointed Richmond the place. Owing to the late war between the states there were but few members in the South. The association was prepared to pay its own expenses, the idea being to bring about a reconciliation of the pharmacists of all sections. That it was a happy thought, was demonstrated by the results. When the place of meeting was announced, the pharmacists and druggists of Richmond became enthusiastic in their endeavor to give the association a cordial greeting. The association has never received better treatment at any place since. Strange to say, Ebert, of Chicago, and Baker, of Richmond, were the most conspicuous persons at the opening of that meeting, one as president of the association, and the other as chairman of the reception committee. Ever after they remained loyal and useful members, and each died about the same time in their respective city, where they had been an honor to the practice of phar

macy.

T. Roberts Baker, Ph. G., Ph. M., was born in Richmond, Va., May 30, 1825, and died at his home in that city, November 26, 1906.-[J. F. HANCOCK, Baltimore, Md., December 3, 1906.

Medical Ignorance of the Pharmacopoeia.-Many physicians are just learning of the Pharmacopoeia for the first time and some of them venture to express opinions and especially criticisms without knowing what they are talking about. At the 1906 meeting of the American Medical Association, a discussion was held on the proprietary medicines. Among the speakers was Dr. Woods Hutchinson who requested the audience to

look at that medical barbarism, the United States Pharmacopoeia, and the enormous lists of things that had been published. Anyone looking over those lists must have been struck with the great number of drugs that have been retained, and it is the fault of the profession that such a large number was retained. The remedy lies in our hands. At least one-half the pages should be cut out; instead, somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,500 or 2,000 remedies have been added.

We doubt very much whether Dr. Hutchinson ever saw a copy of the Pharmacopoeia and he certainly has a very vague idea of the manner in which it is revised, for he said that it should be revised. Perhaps he will become sufficiently interested to attend the convention of 1910 as a delegate from his local medical society. If so, he will have a voice in the revision. Meantime, we suggest that he inquire of some pharmaceutical friend for a copy of the Pharmacopoeia and compare it with the Dispensatory which he, no doubt, had in mind when he spoke of 1500 or 2000 remedies as being official.

While pharmacists must smile at the ignorance of physicians on Pharmacopoeial and National Formulary questions, they should be exceedingly charitable, for it is a good sign when physicians become interested in these standard works. It means a return to the days of prescriptions for standard preparations.

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