Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1904-12-22

other young fellow from Knox College
in Illinois named Yates, now governor
of that state Prouty won second hon
ors and would have come out at the
head Of the procession had 1t not been
that his Grafton was few seconds too
long to conform to the rules Of the
association and in endeavoring to leave
out paragraph he became somewhat
frustrated and in order to gain his
equipose stepped to table on the plat
form and took sip Of water and then
proceeded with his production. The in
cident in measure broke the contin-
uity of thought and lost him the VIC
tory by one-eighth of one per cent In
the final markings"
ANOTHER MURDEROUS GRAFT.
GSioux City Journal.]
The limit of graft atrocity was be-
lieved to have been reached last sum-
mer. when 1t was disclosed that a New
York manufacturer had been selling
life preservers in which iron instead OF
cork had been used to give them the
requisite weight. 1t was pointed out
at that time how the lives Of inno-
cent persons might be sacrificed as a
result of the grasping manufacturers
desire ilegitimately to increase his
profits. There was widespread indig-
nation that there proved to be no law
under which such a crime against hui.
mainly could be adequately punish
ed. The New York case, bad as 1t was,
is about to be outdone in Chicago,
where more than 100 druggists are to
be prosecuted for selling adulterated
drugs.
The discovery Of the latest form OF
murderous graft has come thru the
pharmacy. Having reason to believe
that certain wholesale druggists had
been putting out adulterated drugs, the
board sent test prescription to 1873
druggists in the city Of Chicago. The
prescription called for pure aristol, an
antiseptic wash used by surgeons. OF
the 139 prescriptions only thirty-one
We're Allied with the pure drug called
for. Nine Of the prescriptions showed
10 per cent adulteration, 66 were 80
per cent impure and % showed abso-
lutely no trace Of the drug prescribed.
The physician who called for aristol
at Chicago drug store stood more
than an even chance of getting some
thing else. Nor had care been taken to
see that the adulterant was harmless.
In most cases it comprised some min
era1 substance which when applied to
an open wound instead Of acting as an
antiseptic might cause suppuration and
possible blood poisoning.
Imagine critical surgical case in
which the patients life depended on
the prompt response to drugs of stand
ard strength and purity. Try to imag-
inc the responsibility of the persons
who substituted something that not
only would not do the work, expected,
but would produce positively harmful
effects. Is 1t too harsh to conclude that
every person dying under those condi-
tions was murdered and that the per-
sons who manufactured and sold the
adulterated drug must be held respon-
sible for the crime?
Unfortunately there is no reason to
believe that the drug adulterating graft,
is confined to a single article or that
it's operations are limited to a single
locality. 1t is we'll known that there
are chemical concerns which make a
business Of selling drugs at low prices,
and 1T Is assumed that in most instan-t
ces these drugs are not Of standard
purity. The primal responsibility for
this graft devolves on the manufact-
urer, but the druggists are not alto
gether blameless The druggist who
buys drugs at cut prices has presump-