IN BRIEF

The every day name of business idealism is fair play.

Knowledge of your merchandise is what wins. Without it you are lost.

Cigarettes do not contain added narcotics, as is so often stated in public print.

A junk trust is the latest sensation. The junk consists of worn out rubber shoes, boots, etc.

The Illinois Pharmaceutical Association meets this year at Springfield, the date being June 15-17.

Ohio has a prerequisite bill before the legislature which has been endorsed by the pharmacists of that state.

One effect of the war has been a scarcity of sea moss for millinery purposes. We suggest the use of Florida moss.

A writer on pharmaceutical affairs suggests that learning cost price is one way of getting some butter for your bread.

Chloral was prepared by Liebig in 1834, but was not used as a medicine till Liebrisch introduced it as a hypnotic in 1869.

Two violators of the Food and Drugs Act in New, York City have lost their citizenship in addition to paying a heavy fine.

The Missouri Pharmaceutical Association, as usual, holds its annual meeting at Pertle Springs. The date is June 15-18.

The man who gets along best with his employes is the man who does not forget that they have as many rights as he himself has.

Dentistry and medicine are drawing closer to gether, according to a medical exchange. How about pharmacy and medicine?

If you make your store the best of its kind in your town you will have little trouble in getting profitpaying prices for your goods.

Radium is in use at the Radium Institute in London to treat "spring catarrh." We are in doubt whether it can cure spring fever.

Practically all newpspapers are showing an increase of circulation during the past six months, owing to the demands caused by war news.

It is now estimated that 850 million doses of narcotic drugs have been used by habituates in the United States during the past current year.

The clerk who notices a shortage in certain items of stock and fails to call attention to it, is not doing his part toward helping the business along.

Over 650 persons attended the Minnesota Ph. A. meeting at St. Paul, February 9. What state associations will make equally good showings, this summer?

The British meterological office now records and publishes the rainfall in millimeters in place of inches. This is adding to the troubles in that country.

The government is planting elk in eleven national forests for the purpose of checking the gradual de

crease of elk which is likely to reach a point of extinction.

The Pharmaceutical Era urges pharmacists to avoid the enactment of state laws which deviate from the general purpose laid down in the Federal Anti-Narcotic Act.

It is now claimed that the present war is promoting the development of life saving devices. Perhaps it is, but not in keeping with its work of life destruction.

The drug stores of Woodland, Cal., take turns in keeping open on Sunday. This will be a good example for pharmacists to follow in other sections of the country.

A Norwegian makes the announcement based on experiments that fish grow faster some years than in others regardless of their individual ages. Who supposed otherwise?

The war in Europe does not prevent the Netherlands from enacting new pharmaceutical legislation. The problems considered are much the same as we have in the United States.

South Dakota has a new poison law requiring general merchants in communities where there is "neither drug store nor registered pharmacist" to obtain a license before they can sell common poi

sons.

The Public Health and Marine Hospital Service has found that it requires one minute for a 95% solution of phenol to kill a flea. Others have long since discovered that it may require an hour or more to catch a flea.

According to Professor J. A. Koch, in the Practical Druggist, a manufacturer of Pittsburg produced about 90% of the world's supply of radium the past year. It amounted to over nine grams, valued at about three-quarters of a million dollars.

Pennsylvania has a Weights and Measures Law requiring that each package be plainly and conspicuously marked in terms of weight, measure or numerical count on the outside of the covering or container usually delivered to the consumers.

In Chicago, some of the retail pharmacists have had trouble on account of irresponsible persons getting hold of their labels and using them on their orders, which were filled by wholesale druggists and charged to the pharmacists' accounts.

The death of Charles E. Bessey, of the University of Nebraska, removes one of the leading botanists of this country. He was in touch with pharmacy through his activities in various organizations where pharmacists, particularly those engaged in teaching, are members.

Just as cubic centimeters are becoming real measures in practice in this country, the government deIcides to change the name to milliliter, which, of course, will be abbreviated to mil. It is announced that the U. S. P. IX will use the word milliliter, but the strong protest coming from pharmacy in general may change the attitude of the Committee on Revision.

IN BRIEF

It is easier to wait than to learn to labor. What is your remedy for unfair competition? Paint is like sunshine. It makes the world look brighter and better.

There are some men who can't even tell the truth without exaggerating it.

Seattle has a Carnegie library with eight branches and six drug store deposit stations.

What means would you suggest to prevent accidental poisoning by corrosive sublimate tablets?

Fifty per cent tinctures are again urged, but are rather late for incorporation in the U. S. P. IX.

Run your blue pencil under August 9, to remind you of the San Francisco meeting of the A. Ph. A.

A New York man who speaks seven languages has recently had his salary advanced to $40.00 a month. The University of Michigan School of Pharmacy will henceforth be known as the "college of pharmacy."

Bismarck said that one who did not know Latin hated it. No doubt, for a similar reason we hate our enemies.

There were 41,600 patents issued by the government in 1914. Some one must be of an inventive turn of mind.

The destruction caused by fires in the United States would build the Panama Canal in less than two years.

Phosphate rock, it is said has almost entirely displaced bone, guano and apatite as a source of phosphoric acid.

Do not squander your profits in unsalable side lines, but watch the opportunity for adding goods that will sell.

The larger the store, the more are the clerks the ones who meet the customers. Remember this in selecting clerks.

Tobacco cures are somewhat out of date, but cures for those who are narcotic habituates are now the order of the hour.

Make sure you understand the Harrison Anti-Narcotic Law and its regulations before you find too much fault with it.

Pharmacists of Morrice, Perry and Bancroft, Mich., do not handle liquor. Many other pharmacists follow their example.

We hear much about the cost of $375,000,000.00 per week for the war but no one mentions receiving even a part of the money.

The Albert E. Ebert Fund, of the University of Illinois School of Pharmacy Alumni Association, now amounts to $605.00.

The legislature of Oregon appropriated $1,500.00 for the Board of Pharmacy year 1916. The governor promptly vetoed the bill.

A New York State law requires dentists to procure prescriptions in order to obtain cocaine for use in the practice of dentistry.

New Jersey is working for a pharmacy law which will appropriate $10,000.00 annually for the use of the Board in enforcing the act.

The District of Columbia Board of Pharmacy registered only three applicants at a recent examination. The board will meet again, July 8.

Is the Postal Service Slow? Some New York business men claim that it is but they are unacquainted with the official service in St. Louis.

The Indiana Food and Drug Commissioner is issuing warnings to the bakers, the farmers, the egg dealers and the operators of soda fountains.

A shortage of leeches is one of the results of the European war. It does not, however, materially affect the practice of medicine in the United States.

The fire losses in the United States in 1913 were sufficient to pay the total interest bearing debt of the United States within a period of four years.

When reference is made to "women in pharmacy and the allied professions" no association with the war in Europe should be drawn as an inference.

A Chicago pharmacist shot and instantly killed a robber who had broken into his store. Drugs are not the only deadly things found in a pharmacy.

The pharmacist who wrote a paper on "Efficiency and Nine Hours a Day for the Retail Druggist," actually worked twelve to fourteen hours a day himself.

A third of a century ago, medical schools for women were more numerous than they are now. Today, women who study medicine do so in the regular schools.

An exchange devoted to perfumery criticizes England for placing a war tax on perfumeries which the editor says are not luxuries but "articles necessary to hygiene."

Do not study about a subject for your paper for the state association. Write about what you are thinking about, also what you are doing along pharmaceutical lines.

In some places the United Cigar Stores are selling candy, gum, ice cream and soda water. It seems that the smoking habit is not sufficiently general to suit the management.

A soothing wine for children containing one-third of a grain of morphine acetate in one fluid ounce was shown by the government to be misbranded, and was accordingly condemned.

The Board of Trustees of the United States Pharmacopeial Convention will hold its fifth annual meeting, at Washington, D. C., May 21. Dr. J. H. Beal is chairman of the Board.

The Indiana Commisisoner of Weights and Measures has notified contractors and teamsters that full weight and measure must be given of sand, gravel, rock and similar material.

A Stockton, Cal., pharmacist paid a $25.00 fine on conviction of running a pharmacy without a registered pharmacist. Pharmacists should not attempt relief work while visiting on the Pacific Coast, unless registered in the state where they sojourn.

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.

Smoking in a Drug Store.—I have decided views on this bad habit. I also have a rule. My clerks are given to understand that all of the smoking in the Posistore is to be done by the chief in my store. tive instructions are given to the clerks not to smoke. This has worked nicely in my store for many years. The boss has his indulgence and the clerks form no habit of the filthy weed as far as store hours are concerned. The clerks may consider this selfish on the part of the boss, but it at once stamps the boss as the chief, and shows that he is not subject to the gencral good regulations of the store.-[William Mittelbach, Boonville, Mo.

In Opening a New Store, there is always more or less chance connected with its prospects. Select a location in which the business is not already overdone, and where you may reasonably expect the patronage of at least 1,500 people. If you can draw frcm 3,000, then all the better, but be sure of your 1,500. A new store that has been put on a paying basis under 12 months is as rare as an ounce of radium. I don't care how good your location may be. I don't care how hard you may work. I don't care how much or how well you may advertise. The very foundation of your business, or any business, is built on time. You can't get away from it. I know. And all through this, your operating expenses are going right along.-[W. S. Denton, Beardstown, Ill.

Keep Pharmacy in the Hands of Competent Pharmacists. As the time draws near for the annual meetings of the various state pharmaceutical associations, I desire to urge the readers of the MEYER BROTHERS DRUGGIST to keep in mind the desirability of limiting the practice of pharmacy to those who are really competent to engage in and carry on the drug business. This can be done not only by the enactment of proper laws and the enforcement of the same, but by showing that pharmacy really requires special qualifications on the part of the dispenser. State pharmaceutical association conventions should help educate the public to the appreciation of the difference between a competent and incompetent dealer in drugs. [Joe Clinkenbeard, Lamar, Mo.

Limiting the Number of Drug Stores According to the Population.-I have received inquiries caused by an expression of my views on this subject. I am well advised that the mixing and sale of drugs comes

distinctly under regulation of public health and morals, and therefore is subject to state police power. It is a self-evident fact that one drug store for, say,. every thousand persons can amply supply all their needs in the way of drugs and medicines. That three drug stores exist for every thousand persons, for instance, would indicate among other things that illicit traffic in liquor is being carried on, or in habit forming drugs has been carried on. The state is bound to guarantee the highest efficiency and service in the sale and dispensing of drugs and medicines and this can only be done when the dispenser is assured a reasonable profit, and he should be protected against unfair competition. This theory has been put into effect as to saloons in Kansas City on the basis that the good saloonkeeper is entitled to protection and profits and has cut down the number of saloons here fully one-third. No new saloons can be licensed until an increase of population adjacent is proven.-[A. N. Doerschuk, Ph. G., Kansas City, Missouri.

Sunday Sales and Sunday Closing.-My Sunday hours are from 8 a. m. to 12 m. and 5 to 8 p. m. for necessary medicines and prescriptions only. I have cards printed as above, one of which is placed on the door when I open the store on Sunday morning and others are distributed around in the store, so all prospective customers can see them.

When I have a call for any of the numerous items handled in a modern drug store which cannot be classed as Sunday necessaries in the true sense of the word, I tell my customers that we confine our Sunday sales to prescriptions and necessary medicines and that we cannot deviate from this rule. I can safely say that nine-tenths of my customers appreciate my position, and where I lose one customer by refusing to sell them cigars or toilet preparations, I gain two for taking a stand for what I consider right. Of course, it does seem hard to refuse an old customer a cigar on Sunday, nevertheless it is necessary to draw the line somewhere, but where can one draw it if not close to the mark.

All this Sunday rest question needs is a little backbone on the part of the druggist.

There is no reason why a druggist should sell window glass, varnish, paints, sponges and hundreds of items just because it is necessary for him to have his doors open to supply the needs of the sick, by compounding prescriptions and furnishing necessary medicines.

From a financial viewpoint, it would at first thought seem a poor proposition, but if one hold a dollar too close to the eye, he sees nothing but the dollar. Hold it out at arm's length, he sees the dollar, but he sees many other things that are of more value than the dollar and that are worth going after.

Get away from the drug store at least half a day on Sunday and forget about it. Get out in the country or parks and let the pure air take the ammonium valerianate odor out of your clothes and on Monday

you will feel better equipped to take up the routine of drug store life for another week.-[P. H. Paul, Alton, Ill.

Little Things That Get Customers. With large business establishments vying in service to get and hold trade the public is being educated to expect refinements that in bygone years were unthought of. Footmen to open and close auto doors, umbrella checking systems, rest rooms and free concerts are so common that they are no longer regarded as luxuries, but rather as things to be expected. Even the tiny corner grocer is obliged to maintain a telephone delivery service or lose his trade to the competitor that does. So it behooves every druggist to compare his business to that of the druggist across the way and determine just why the customers who buy of his competitor are doing so.

The question naturally arises: Is my competitor giving more value for a dollar than I? This, however, in these days of standardized products and prices is possible only on a small scale. So the next logical conclusion is that the difference is in service. In nine cases out of ten this is where the trouble lies. A case in point: In a certain community there is a drug store and a cigar store side by side. The tobacco trade of the drug store almost equals that of the cigar store; and the "why" of this is service. The drug store, with every purchase, large or small, gives away a paper of matches. Often, to, if a stranger stops at the cigar counter for a light, he is given a paper of matches, whether he purchases or not. This results in good will, appreciation, and sales by which means the drug store has built up a tobacco trade so large that it greatly overbalances the small cost of the matches. This good-will is frequently turned into dollars and cents at other counters, too, because, with the men of the neighborhood this is the favorite drug store.

It hasn't been so many years since it was common practice for druggists to wrap packages in pink, yellow or blue paper, bearing an ad for a blood remedy or some other patent medicine. But today in the majority of cases this so-called form of economy has also been swept before the advance of service, so that now, the live-up-to-date pharmacist who is doing the largest business in his community uses plain paper or wrappers bearing, if anything, only a neat ad for his own establishment.

And so it goes, throughout the store, clear down to the prescription department. Here lie the vitals of the drug store, because it is this part of the organization that largely determines the standing of the store in the community. If it is up-to-the-minute, it will not only impress the people, but the doctors, too, who wield great influence everywhere. So it's absolutely necessary that every product which comes from this department should have the earmarks of ability behind the desk.-[Armstrong Cork Co., Pittsburg, Pa.

Fostering the Prescription Business.-This is what the Bryan Drug Co., Vicksburg, Miss., is doing. In a recent announcement, showing the growth of the prescription business, the firm gives the following reasons for having filled 21,315 prescriptions in twelve months:

There Ame Many Reasons for This!

1st--We have kept absolute faith with both Physician and Patient. 2nd We have experienced men who handle your prescriptions understandingly and give you exactly what your physician prescribes, putting nothing in nor leaving nothing out that should be there.

3rd-We give you Standardized Drugs of the highest purity that do exactly what your physician intends them to do.

4th-We believe (and act accordingly) that all prescriptions should be filled and put up in packages as cleanly and neatly as the food you eat.

5th-We give you efficient and prompt service.

What is Your Guess?-The following is a real prescription written by a legal practitioner of medicine in London and dispensed by a pharmacist of that city. Do not think the prescriber was nervous on account of the war, for this prescription was written before the outbreak of hostilities. Those who are not acquainted with the shorthand system may refer it to a stenographer. We surmise that it had better be referred to a clairvoyant. Send in your guess promptly to the MEYER BROTHERS DRUGGIST.

Sodium Bicarbonate (pure) is made by simply washing the commercial salt with cold water, and drying in a warm place.

Bleached Sponge.-You will find a formula and full directions for bleaching sponges on page 147 of the National Formulary (N. F. III). The article is officially known as "decolorized sponge."

The British Pharmacopoeia is now on sale in this country and can be obtained through the regular book trade. We understand that Paul B. Hoeber, 67 East 59th St., New York City, advertises the book at $4.20 net.

Lamp Collar Cement.-Pharmacists in the smaller cities and towns usually handle lamps. The question of re-cementing the loose collar may also puzzle the pharmacist who has colored lamps in use in his store. H. C. Bradford, in Merck's Report, says:

Rosin, 3 parts; caustic soda, 1 part; water, 5 parts. Dissolve the soda in the water and add to the rosin, which has been melted on a water-bath. Continue the heat and stirring until the rosin is saponified. The whole is now weighed and a quantity of plaster of Paris equal to half its weight is thoroughly mixed into it. This cement must be used at once, as it sets in about 15 minutes and continues to harden for a long time. It is entirely unaffected by kerosene, either cold or hot.

Phenylhydrazine. This substance, which is used in the preparation of antipyrine, can be obtained by acting on a solution of anilin in hydrochloric acid with sodium nitrate, whereby diazobenzene chloride is formed. Stannous chloride dissolved in hydrochloric acid is now added, and after standing about an hour phenylhydrazine hydrochloric separates. This is washed with alcohol and ether, and the residue treated with caustic soda and extracted with ether. The ether is then distilled off and the oily residue fractionated by distillation, the portion distilling between 225 degrees and 235 degrees being phenylhydrazine.

To Color Electric Bulbs. A number of formulas exist for coloring the bulbs of glow lamps. The following are quite satisfactory:

The alum solution may be colored with anilin dyes or with cochineal for red, tumeric for yellow, indigo for blue, etc. This solution will at the same time give the bulbs a frosted appearance.

Liquid Glue. The following is the subject of an English patent, and is said to yield a glue liquid at all ordinary temperatures, of great adhesive properties, and which does not mold:

Let any desired amount of gelatin or glue swell in cold water until it has taken up the maximum of that substance. Pour off and work out all excess of moisture, then liquefy by the application of heat (in a water bath). To the solution add 10 per cent of the original weight of the gelatin or glue, of sodium salicylate, and dissolve. A small addition of oil of clove is recommended. This, as we understand the description, constitutes a stock, which is to be diluted for use, as desired.

A Simple Furniture Polish.-There is a simple mixture of kerosene, and linseed oil, two parts of the kerosene to one of the linseed oil, which makes the best polish that has come to my notice. This should only be mixed a little at a time. Some use turpentine, but this is not nearly as trustworthy, as it will dull instead of brighten the polish in time. After the piece of furniture to be treated has been well dusted, take a soft piece of flannel and dip it in the preparation, rub a small suface of the woodwork, and then take another small surface, allowing the first to stand while this is being done, then take a clean flannel, rub until the polish shines to suit you. This will leave a polish brilliant and beautiful, if this polishing takes place occasionally, the furniture may be kept looking like new for an almost indefinite time; indeed, I might say, indefinitely, if it is all of wood. Be sure the rags are absolutely clean and free from dust-the same ones may be used and washed to use again as long as they last.

A Safe Rat Exterminator.-A correspondent of the Sudd. Apoth. Zeit., after recounting the dangers and disappointments attending the use of arsenic and phosphorus, and their various preparations, as rat and mouse destroyers, says that he has tested the following formula thoroughly, and can recommend it above all others:

Cut the garlic into small pieces, and fry it in the lard, to which the tallow is added according to the season (more in summer, less in winter). When the garlic has acquired a dark brown hue, add the barium carbonate, stir in well and finally add the verdigris solution. Put into white metal or well turned boxes, holding 50 gms. each. The cost is low, and the preparation can safely be recommended to the patrons of the establishment. The author declares that after many years' use he pronounces it "infallible." It keeps for years without losing a particle of its activity.