Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1882-11-29
Tricks OF Druggists.

"People often wonder why their ply
sician's prescription doesn't take ef-
feet They protest that the bottle has
been well shaken before using; that the
three-times-a-day injunction had been
religiously 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 has
not been properly diagnosed, and some
times throw out u hint to that effect. 1t
never occurs to them that the druggist
is at fault; that their 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 i'm casual conversation upon topics
relating to his professional experience.
"One of the most common frauds l
have already mentioned-.the substitu-
ton of cinchonidia and cinchona for
quinine. Authorizations of the most
familiar drugs are almost universal.
Citrate of magnesia is made with only
one-half or three-fourths its wonted
strength; tincture 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.
Paregoric 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 ntre and a long catalogue OF
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
teration of prescriptions. 4 have here q
number of documents which tell their
own stories," and the physician took
package of duplicate prescriptions from
n pigeon-hole. "These bits of paper
expose the delinquencics of more than a
dozen of Philadelphia drug stores, and
represent similar irregularities in scores
OF others. Here is the copy of the pre-
scription rs written by the physicians.
On the same slip is the pharmacists 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 i'm 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
of cosmoline. The compromising drug
gist followed instructions accurately,
with the trilling exception of substitute
ing two grains of iodine for the fifteen
grains of iodoform. Iodine acts as an
irTitant, while the effect of iodoform is
quite different. The physician was not
slow in discovering the irregularty and
promptly returned the prescription. An
other reads; Malto peptine, II grains;
lacto peptine, II grains; citrate caffeine,
grains. 1t was filled thus: Sacchar-
ated pepsn, 20 grains; citrate caffeine, 2
enthusiastically adheres to the weight,
you will notice, but is somewhat irregu-
lar rs to ingredients This one calls for
two drains of potassic permanganate to
two ounces of water. The pharmacist
wasn't misery with the water, but evil
IDENTITY concluded that half dram of the
| permanganate would suffice. ''Cincho-
MIA sulphate, 80 grains; strychnia sui
phate, three-fourths of grain; arsenious
acid, three-fourths of grain" under
the wizard hand of the prescription clerk
loses two of its ingredients, and comes
out plain cinchona sulphate, and the
druggist from whose file this was taken
universally fills it in the same simple
way.
Bread crumbs play conspicuous
part in this next one. The physician
wrote Citrate caffeine, 20 grains; bro
mide lithium, II grains. The inscruta-
BILE wisdom of the druggist substituted
one grain for the twenty, two grains for
the twelve, and made up for all deficien-
cies with twenty-nine grains of bread
crumbs. Seidlitz powders made to cost
just half what they should by using
equal parts of Rochelle salts and bicar-
Donate of soda in the blue paper, when
the Rochelle salts should constitute
three-fourths of the mixture. PhiladeL-,
phia Press.