The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1882-09-01
Tricks az Druggists.


"Peopie often wonder why their phy-
sician' 5 prescription doesn't take et-
feet They protest that the bottle has
been well shaken before using that the
three-times-a-day injunction had been
reiiSiousiy followed, and that every eau
ton about diet and sleep has been OBJ
served TO the letter, and yet their con-
dition IS not one whit improved. They
begin TO suspect that their ailment mas
not been properly diagnosed, and some
times throw out hint to that effect. 1t
never occurs n them that the druggist
is at fault; that theft prescriptions have
been juggled and either weakened be.
yond any possibility of doing any good,
or transformed into something entirely
different"
A prominent Philadelphia physician
made use of the above language yester-
day in casual conversation upon topics
relating to his professional experience:
Lone of the moSs.common frauds 1
auiuine. Adulterations of the most
familiar drugs are almost universal.
Citrate of magnesia is made with only
one-half or three-fourths its wouted
strength; rincture of iodine, one-fourth
to three-fourths laudanum, half to three
! fourths The laudanum of the stores is
exceedingly unreliable, the cheaper
preparations being weak in proportion
to the price. There may be some con-
! nection between this fact and the lack of
success of so many would-be suicides.
/ Pareroric is very commonly diluted one
/ half. and often contains no benzoic acid
/ and but one fourth the standard proper
/ ton OF opium. Aqua ammonia, sweet
/ spirits of nitre and a long catalogue of
1 Others are similarly manipulated. The
/ various oils-rose, lemon, bergamont,
orange, rose geranium. etc. are nearly
! one-half alcohol.
..But to COME down to the actual al
4 teration of prescriptions. have here a
number of documents which tell their
own stories, and the physician took a
! package of duplicate prescriptions from
! a pipeon-hole These bits of paper
expose the delinquencics of more than a
/ dozen of Philadelphia drug stores, and
I represent similar irregularities in scores
| of others Here Is the copy of the pre-
scription as written by the physicians.
On the same slip IS the pharmacist re-
vision of it. / need not explain how
this information came into my posses
sion, but it is strictly accurate, and the
! druggists, whose names | have in each
\ case. are all registered and graduates
from schools of pharmacy. Here is one
that calls for fifteen grains of iodoform,
one dram balsam or Peru, and one ounce
I OF cosmoline The compounding drug
/ gist followed instructions accurately,
with the trilling exception of substitut-
| inc two Grains of iodine for the fifteen
grains of iod0form. Iodine acts as al
irritant. while the effect of iodoform is
quite different. The physician was not
slow in discovering the irregularity anc
promptly returned the prescription. An
other reads: Malto peptine, u grains
lacto peptine, II grains; citrate caffeine
grains 1t was filed thus: Sacchar
ated pepsin, % grains; citrate caffeine,
grains-strictly adheres to the weight
YOU viii notice, but il somewhat irregu
lar as to ingredients This one calls fol
two drams of potassic permanganate tc
two ounces of water. The pharmacist
wasn't miserlv with the water. but evi
IDENTIFY concluded that half dram of the
permanganate would suffice. ''Cincho
MIA sulphate. 80 grains; strychnia sui
/ phate. three-fonrths of a grain; arseniou:
acid, three-f -fourths of a grain undel
the wizard hand of the prescription clerk
loses two of its ingredients, and come:
out plain cinchona sulphate, and the
druggist from whose file this was takeI
universally fills it in the same simple
way.
Bread crumbs play conspicuou
part in this next one. The physician
wrote Citrate caffeine, 20 grains; bro
mide lithium, y grains The inscruta
bic wisdom of the druggist substituted
one grain for the twenty, two grains TO
the twelve, and made up for all deficien
cies with twenty-nine grains of breaC
crumbs. Seidlitz powders made to COS
just half what they should by using
equal parts of Rochelle salts and bicar
Donate of soda in the blue paper, wher
the Rochelle salts should constitut,
three-fourths of the mixture. Philadel
phiG Press.