WISCONSIN DEPARTMENT. BY E. B. HEIMSTREET, SECRETARY WISCONSIN BOARD OF PHAR MACY, JANESVILLE. Violation of Pharmacy Law.-Messrs. Stark Bros., proprietors of a large department store at Menominee Falls, were fined $50 and costs for selling drugs and poisons with no pharmacist in charge of the store. M. A. Schmoyer & Co., general dealers at Menominee Falls, were fined $50 and costs for selling carbolic acid. No pharmacist was in the store, nor was the poison labeled. Both the above cases were prosecuted by the State Board of Pharmacy, and were before Judge D. S. Tullar, Municipal Court for the Eastern District of Waukesha County, at Waukesha, Wednesday, November 17. PRES. H. O. FRANK. Warning to Dealers in Medicines.—It has come to our notice that a great many so-called patent medicines or proprietary articles are simply used as vehicles to convey poisonous and dangerous narcotic drugs to persons and patients already weakened with suffering and disease, thereby not only failing to give the relief or benefit sought for, but destroying every vestige of health and enslaving the unsuspecting victim to a fate far worse than death. After investigation we have found that many soothing cordials and syrups, cough syrups, catarrh cures and similar proprietary medicines, contain morphine and other dangerous ingredients. The use of muriate of cocaine has become so general as to number its helpless, hopeless victims in nearly every community. Several cases of death, after untold suffering, have been reported that are believed to have been caused by the use of this dangerous drug found in so-called patent medicines. We believe that the laws of Wisconsin are sufficiently explicit to apply to these cases. The attention of all interested persons is hereby directed to the following law, entitled: "Chapter 166, laws of Wisconsin, 1897": Sec. 1. No person by himself, his servant or agent, or as the servant or agent of any other person, shall sell, exchange, deliver, or have in his possession with the intent to sell, exchange, deliver, or have in his possession with the intent to sell or exchange, or expose or offer for sale or exchange, any drug or article of food which is adulterated within the meaning of this act. Sec. 2. The term "drug" as used in this act, shall include all medicines for internal or external use, antiseptics, disenfectants and cosmetics. The term "food" as used herein, shall include all articles used for food or drink by man, whether simple, mixed or compound. Sec 3. An article shall be deemed to be adulterated within the meaning of this act: (a) In the case of drugs: First, if, when sold under or by a name recognized in the United States Pharmacopocia, it differs from the standard of strength, quality or purity laid down in the latest current edition thereof; second, if when sold under or by a name not recognized in the Pharmacopocia of some other country, the National Formulary, or other standard work on materia medica, it differs materially from the standard of strength, quality or purity laid down in the latest current edition of such work; third, if its strength, quality or purity falls belcw the professed standard under which it is sold. (b). In the case of food: First, if any substance or substances have been mixed with it, so as to lower or depreciate or injuriously affect its strength, quality or purity; second, if any inferior or cheaper substance or substances have been substituted wholly or in part for it; third, if any valuable or necessary ingredient has been wholly or in part abstracted from it; fourth, if it is an imitation of or is sold under the name of another article; fifth, if it consists wholly or in part of a diseased, infected, decomposed, putrid, tainted or rotten animal or vegetable substance or article, whether manufactured or not; sixth, if it is colored, coated, polished or powdered, whereby damage or inferiority is concealed, or if by any means it is made to appear better or of greater value than it really is; seventh, if it contains any added substance or ingredient which is poisonous, injurious or deleterious to health, or any deleterious substance not a necessary ingredient in its manufacture, provided that the provisions of this act shall not apply to mixtures or compounds recognized as ordinary articles of food, if the same be distinctly labeled as mixtures or compounds and from which no necessary ingredient in its preparation is eliminated. Sec. 6. No person by himself, his servant or agent, or as the servant or agent of any other person, shall sell, exchange, deliver, or have in his possession with the intent to sell or exchange, or expose or offer for sale or exchange, any medicine known as patent or proprietary, or of which the formula is kept secret by the manufacturer, which contains morphine, strychnine, cocaine or poisonous or narcotic alkaloid or drug in any quantities, which the State Board of Health shall deem harmful to the life or the health of the public, unless the presence of the same be distinctly shown by the label upon the bottle or package and upon the outer wrapper thereof. Sec. 7. Whoever violates any of the provisions of this act shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction, shall be fined not exceeding $100 nor less than $25 for each and every offense. Druggists and general dealers having suspected preparations of this kind in stock should at once secure themselves from loss by prosecution by taking a written guarantee from the jobber or manufacturer, that their preparations do not contain poisonous drugs, and are not deleterious or dangerous to health. It is our intention to prosecute for the sale of medicine containing these dangerous drugs, unless each and every bottle or package containing them is labeled according to law, and we call upon every honest citizen, and especially druggists and physicians, to aid us in correcting what we believe to be one of the most serious abuses of the times, and a menace to the health and happiness of many thousands of people. The law goes into effect January 1, 1898. SOLON MARKS, M. D., President. Wisconsin Board of Pharmacy H. O. FRANK, President, General or department stores will be held responsible for the quality of all goods sold by them, such as ammonia, witch hazel, essence lemon, peppermint, ginger and this class of goods. INCIDENTS FROM REAL LIFE. Chas. A. Heinitsh, of Lancaster, Pa., says: "Yes, I was once a drug clerk, and many pounds of aloes, spanish flies, seneca and loaf sugar have I powdered; many a pill I have had to roll, and many a plaster to spread on white skin; many gallons of syrup I was obliged to make and follow all the other old-time ways of preparing and selling medicines." He Understood his Business. We refer to the druggist in an English seaport town who had a downeast Yankee from the United States as a transient customer. The Yankee asked for a quarter pound of salts and the druggist charged him ten cents. The customer remarked that the price was rather high when the proprietor responded, "It is a very expensive article." The customer answered, "I am a druggist and I know what it costs you," but had nothing to say when the proprietor retorted, "Then, sir, you should know that we must make a profit in order to live." Geo. C. Bartells, of Camp Point, Ill., says; "I often think of my first pill-making experiment. My preceptor, Dr. Hiram Rogers, was an extraordinarily patient and kind man to learn under. We would get an order from some country physician for 500 C. C. pills, and go to work at them. The doctor weighed out the ingredients carefully and mixed them thoroughly, made a fine mass and rolled them out as easily as play. Then he asked me if I could make a lot; yes sir, I can! came promptly. He told me to be careful and not get it too soft, so I worked up a crumbly mass; the pills would fall to pieces. Then I added more moisture, and such a mass as I had on my hands-on spatulas, on pilltile, on counter, in mortar and everything I touched fills me now at this date with amusement. This first batch went into the slop-bucket just thirtyeight years ago. GEO. C. BARTELLS. Paul G. Schuh, of Cairo, Ill., was once a drug clerk and this is what he says about it; I shall never forget the following incident which happened to me in a store. Dr. De Lew prescribed some croton oil for a "gintleman" from "Erin" and told her ladyship to rub a few drops on her husband's chest at bed time. I filled the prescription, handed the bottle properly labeled to the madam, don't know whether or not I had an extra caution attached to it, hardly think I did, the bottle being too small to attach so many labels. At any rate, I caught it the next morning, and thought that the lady had transformed into a tigress over night as she rushed into the store skaking both of her fists at me, and such a racket! Uh! I did not know the woman, at least did not recognize her at once, consequently could not understand what she was driving at. Of course, she thought I understood all about her troubles. At last she got a little cooler when she saw that I was getting about as mad as she was and almost as saucy. Well, to make the story short, I learned at last that she used the "poison" as she called it, which I gave her the evening before on her husband's chest, and that I ought to have cautioned her and told her all about it, that I ought to be punished by law for the neglect of duty, and for the Lord knows what all! I then asked her (and not in a whisper either), "Did I tell you to rub this stuff in your eyes." "No!" "Well, then, don't blame me if you don't have sense enough to wash your fingers after such an operation." That settled her and she left in disgust and just as mad as when she came in. Damages in dollars and cents was what she was after, and had we a pharmacy law at that time she would have brought suit against me, no doubt. MATRIMONIAL. McBride-Cullom.-Mason McBride and Ida Cullom, both of Opelousas, La., were married November 4. Celebrated Their Pearl Wedding.-W. P. Clarke, pharmacist at Milton, Wis., and treasurer of the State Pharmacal Society, and wife celebrated their pearl wedding a few weeks ago. Darby-Pellerin. Mr. T. O. Darby and Miss B. Pellerin, both of Iberia, La., were married December 9. Mr. Darby is the popular traveling salesman of the A. Estorge Drug Co., of Iberia. Lambert-White.-George Taylor Lambert, Ph. G., and Mary Louisa White were married in Philadelphia on November 27, 1897. Mr. Lambert is a popular and progressive young pharmacist of Northwest Philadelphia. Walters-Mihils.-Married at the home of the bride, Evansville, Wis., by Rev. Short, Miss Ethel Hortense Mihils and Mr. Wesley Walters. Mr. Walters is a pharmacist of Evansville and has a good trade as well as a neat and attractive pharmacy. Stubbelfield-Roundtree.-At Hillsboro, Ill., December 8, there was a quiet little wedding in which the most interested young man was the prominent druggist, Mr. E. Stubbelfield, and the happy young lady Miss Etta Roundtree. The couple passed through St. Louis on their wedding trip. Cannady-Bradford. Mr. Wyatt Cannady, of the firm of Cannady Brothers, druggists of Marionville, Mo., and Miss Helen Bradford, were married December 12. Mr. Cannady is one of the best druggists and most enterprising business men in Southwest Missouri, and we congratulate him on becoming a benedict. A Frigate Bird can fly an entire week without stopping to rest. NECROLOGY. Charles Adams, an old relief clerk, was found dead in his room in New Orleans on December 6. As he had no relatives his body was taken charge of by the Orleans Pharmaceutical Association. Geo. H. Andrews, of Muncie, Indiana, died at his home November 30, after an illness of about one year. Mr. Andrews was the first president of the Indiana Pharmaceutical Association, a member of the A. Ph. A. and a prominent pharmacist of the city in which he had lived for the past twenty-eight years. It is asserted that at one time in the city's history every drug clerk in Muncie had been taught by Mr. Andrews. He was a member of the State Board of Examiners for the Purdue University. Mr. Andrews was a very practical man in all business and professional affairs. He was prominent in the Masonic order, having taken the thirty-second degree. Dr. Ernest Hart.-Editor of the British Medical Journal, died January 7. Mr. Hart had been conspicuous for his devotion to social and sanitary progress in London. He established a society for the abatement of smoke, and instituted cheap concerts for the poor. As chairman of the parliamentary bills committee of the British Medical Association, he took an active part in promoting a better organization of the medical departments of the British Army and Navy. not recover from the surgical shock. Louis Crusius worked in his father's printing office for a while, but when 15 years old went to Indianola, Tex., to clerk in a drug store for his uncle, Dr. Schultz. His father was the founder of the Pioneer Press, the first newspaper published in Wisconsin, and was one of the pioneer Germans of the State. The young man came to the St. Louis College of Pharmacy in 1883 and distinguished himself as a good student, a jovial fellow, and a wonderful comic artist. His note book was a curiosity and the black boards were adorned with timely sketches. After graduation he opened a store at Fourteenth and Market streets with Gus H. Scheel, but soon sold his interest and became a student at the St. Louis College of Physicians and Surgeons, where he graduated in 1891. The same year he was elected Professor of Histology in the Marion-Sims Medical College, where his efficient work brought him the esteem of faculty and students. Dr. Crusius is best known to the readers of the MEYER BROTHERS DRUGGIST as the author of many pen sketches appearing in our columns during the past seven years. This journal was the first to thus recognize his genius as an artist and the means of his receiving the first compensation for such work. His reputation grew until at the time of his death he was on the road to fortune as well as world-wide fame. His pen work has appeared in the periodicals of Germany, France, Spain, England, Australia and South America as well as this country. Among sanitary investigations he especially inquired into the various epidemics due to the pollutioning of milk, and devised a series of regulations for safeguarding the milk supply of towns. After investigating the conditions of the Irish peasantry in Galway, Donegal and Mayo, he published in the Fortnightly Review proposals favoring the creation of a peasant proprietary and for reclaiming waste lands. These were adopted by the government. He was the author of numerous works. Louis Crusius, Ph. G., M. D., died at the Rebecca 2. The doctor had been in poor health for a long time, and realized last April that his condition was critical. He spent much of the summer at Sauk City, Wis., where he was born May 10, 1862. Returning home in the early fall the deceased attended to office duties and made some sketches, but could not meet his college classes. Abdominal trouble was diagnosed last spring, but it was not until December 31 that be decided to have a surgical operation performed. This resulted in the removal of a tumor weighing eight and one-half pounds. The doctor did LOUIS CRUSIUS. The last piece of the doctor's work was the followNew Year's Greeting finished a few days before his death and received by many of his friends after the announcement of his demise. It bears testimony to the artist's well-known humor and keen sense of the rediculous, even when on the threshold of the life beyond. A HAPPY In 1892 Dr. Crusius was married to Virginia Topp, of Indianapolis, Ind., who proved a true helpmate for her husband in times of health and a comforting companion and watchful nurse during his illness. The Marion-Sims Medical College, the Alumni Association of the St. Louis College of Pharmacy, the various social, trade and political societies to which the doctor belonged all adopted resolutions of sympathy and were officially represented at the funeral services. The remains were cremated in accordance with the advanced sanitary ideas and wish of the deceased. ANCIENT PHARMACY. Pharmacy in Mexico at the time of the Spanish DR. B. F. G. EGELING, CHIHUAHUA, [Continued from page 469.] The Vegetable Drugs are innumerable, the herbs and roots (tzocuilpatli), the woods (qui, yohl) barks (flaxipenalli), leaves (izuatll), flowers (xochia), fruits (xochigualli) and seeds (achtli), the oils and natural resins, the gum-resins and the balsams furnished the largest contingent of a " pharmacy." (Prosopis dulcis L), which to this day furnishes a substitute for gum arabic, matlalguahuit (Guaiacum sanctum), Horitzguahuitl (Caesalpinia echinata L), a kind of shellac, according to Hernandez, and many others too numerous to mention, but a great many of which are used to-day by pharmacists and physicians of all nationalities. A few like Styrax, Elenis, Peruvian Balsam, etc., that the Aztecs burned in their temples have passed to the Catholic ceremonies of to-day. Hernandez (1615) mentions 477 objects, twenty-six minerals, twenty-seven animals and 424 of vegetable origins. Of these, however, only six minerals, twenty animals and 124 vegetables have been determined as far as the writer is informed. Among the medicinal substances, of which a certain percentage has to be yielded as a tribute to the monarchs, were the lime, cacao, honey, rubber, styrax and many others. A few words only as to the manner in which the ancient Mexican pharmacists prepared and dispensed their medicaments. Among their formulæ the foremost place took the juices which they prepared from the leaves, roots and fresh flowers, the decoctions and infusions of the same parts-dry or fresh-syrups, oils, true and false Roots, leaves, flowers, fruits and seeds the old Papians were very careful to collect at the proper time, in perfect state and maturity, to dry them immediately and careful and to preserve them well, renewing the stock annually. This is certainly more than can be said of many of the modern pharmacies. This rule is probably complied with more in Germany than in any other country. The root of the ycepatli they | emulsions, the latter prepared with some resins, the were especially careful to renew every season, as well as the root of the tuzpatli (Dorstenia controyerba L) which no panamacogian would have been guilty to neglect. Among oils gum-resins, resins and balsams that are of most common use were those of the tlapatl (Ricinus communius) of the Chilli (capsicum), or as the Spaniards called it, Pimienta de los Indias (Indian pepper), Ulli, a kind of rubber, of the chian (Salvia chia Lall.), of the ocotl, a kind of turpentine produced by distillation, while the ulli was secured by a boiling process, dragon's blood, copal (copalli). Under this latter name, however, were comprised quite a number of resins, especially those used for fumigation in their religious services, also to show their reverence to embassadors or persons of the hierarchy. Of imporance were further rubber, turpentine, Peruvian balsam, liquidamber and many others. (croton san From the wood of the Eztaguaknit guipluum Kth) the Aztec apothecary prepared a blood purifier from the amacozlic (Ficus nymphaeif polia L) they gathered a resin (texcalamatl) from the ulguahuit (castilloa catartica cerv.) the caoutchouc in much the same manner as is being done to-day. The Peruvian balsam gathered from Myroxylon sonsonatense Kth, even having cultivated this tree, it is claimed. They prepared the balsam in two waysfirst, by incisions in the bark, the better variety, and a second grade by boiling the bark and wood. When this balsam was first brought to Europe-to Rome, according to Monarvez-it was sold at 100 ducats an ounce. In a similar manner the papiani prepared the styrax (oloxotl) from the xochio cotzoguakill (Liquidrambar styraciflua L). Great many other products were used, of which I only enumerate the mezquite shavings, powders, pastes, cataplasms, ointments, plasters and so forth. Their knowledge was evidently confined to the use of simple remedies, even if they had certain formulæ, that one well might call officinal and whose preparation was solely cor fined to the pharmacists. These only also prepared the various prescriptions of the physicians, which seem to have come to us in the shape of shot-gun prescriptions of some modern practitioners. The Formulas.- Hernandez, as well as Sahagino, have brought to us a number of the Aztec formula. Below are given a few interesting ones. When the old Aztec name is used without any interpretation in the following formulas it has not been possible to determine to a reasonable certainty what plant or drug the inhabitants of Anahuac called by that respective name: 1. Juices. a. Juice of the Tzicalotl.-The stems of Argemone Mexicana L. (Tzicalolt) are incised and the yellowish juice is gathered on the cotton of Eriodendron anfractuosum DC. (Pochotl) and preserved in this manner. The bunches "cotton," with dried juices on them are macerated in water when needed and this latter employed as collyrium. b. Juice of the Tecochitsxihuitle Compound.-Take leaves of the Tecochitixihuitl; take leaves of the Acognilitl, equal parts. Express the juice and mix with equal parts of woman's milk!!!! Rubbed on the forehead produces sleep. 2. Draughts. a. Compound Draught of Copalli.-Herb of Tlahoelilocapatli; Herb of Elaphrosium copalliferum DC; Leaves of Liquidamber styraciflua DC; water, aa partes equales a decoction therefrom. b. Emetic Draught.-Juice of Arhemisia Mexicana; juice of Chichixihuit; juice of Thymus vulgaris L; aa pts. aeq; as emetic in doses of 300 grammes. [To be continued.] PRACTICAL POINTS. To Prevent the Clouding of Surgical Mirrors.An ingenious device is suggested by Wallis which, although very simple, is extremely effectual. It consists of smearing a thin layer of softened soap over the surface of the mirror and afterwards polishing with a dry cloth. The surface then remains perfectly clear, however much it may be breathed upon. With the laryngoscope the usual method of heating the mirror over a lamp can be dispensed with, and the above simpler process used.-[Med. Press, lxiii., 286. Disinfection of Soiled Linen.-Buyer (Fortschrit. de Médicine, No. 1, 1897) has tested different methods employed for the disinfection of bed linen and underclothing. The ordinary methods by boiling are not suited to these articles, as the presence of blood, pus, and feces causes an ineradicable stain if a high temperature is used. Soaking the garments in solutions of various soaps for one or two days failed in every instance to kill cholera, typhoid, and pyogenic organisms which were mixed with the feces with which the garments were smeared. In some cases the germs were killed when the solutions containing the linen were kept at fifty degrees C. for a few hours. With lime-water the results were much better. Sample garments which were soaked in this solution for twentyfour hours were found to be sterilized. An equally good result was obtained in a hospital where about one-half a cubic meter of soiled linen was soaked in lime-water for forty-eight hours-or for twenty-four hours if the clothing was first rinsed with lime-water and then placed in a fresh solution. The lime-water does not injure linen or cotton goods, but shrinks woolen to such an extent as to prevent its use. American Lard -The following are the various lard products obtained in the United States:-(1) "Neutral" lard or "kettle" lard. almost exclusively used for the manufacture of margarine. (2) "Leaf" lard, originally obtained by melting the whole flare with steam, followed by pressure. The flare is now chiefly used for the preparation of neutral lard, which commands a better price. (3) "Choice kettle-rendered" lard obtained from the flare not used up for neutral lard, and from fat from the back of the animal. (4) "Prime steam" lard of all the fatty parts of the hog. (5) "Butcher's" lard melted on an open fire. (6) "Off grade" lard, a lard of lesser value prepared from salt fat. (7) "Dead hog grease" prepared from diseased hogs; "brown grease" prepared from the intestines. "White grease" prepared from the other parts. (8) "Yellow grease" prepared from the waste of the packing warehouse. (9) "Pig's foot grease" obtained from the glue factories. "Prime steam" lard is raw lard of soft, almost oily consistence which hardens at low temperatures. It is melted and crystalized at 10° to 15° C. In winter it is pressed out at 7° to 13o C., in summer at 13° to 18° C. The lard oil thus obtained is used for lighting purposes. and the remaining fat (lard stearine), mixed with ordinary steam lard to give the mixture sufficient firmness, the whole is then put on the market as "refined" lard. The "refining" process sometimes includes the use of a mixture of pressed tallow and vegetable oil.-[Pharm. Woch., xiv., 428, after Deutsche Fleischerzeit. 100% 5 A 7 Who can tell what drugs and chemicals are represented by the above illustrations? |