Various medical associations, pharmaceutical associations, and nearly every journal allied to medicine and the drug trade decried the use of hand-me-downs. The committee on revision of the N. F. immediately offered us a number of preparations of varying merit, that were not even good substitutes for the above, and these I have understood at the suggestion of some physicians. Glycerinated Elix. Gentian, if made according to formula, with its excessive amount of solution of saccharine and its repulsively excessive amount of acetic ether, would never supplant the preparation it was intended to take the place of. Pulv. Acetanilid Comp. is as dangerous a heart depressent as the nostrum it was supposed to displace. We were told that Lactopeptine was too expensive to use as a vehicle, and was worth not a continental medicinally; that Pancreatin and diastase were destroyed by Pepsin in the presence of an acid; besides, after the chemists of the A. M. A. were through their analysis, they found there was so little Pepsin that it was scarcely worth mentioning, but if the doctor wanted a good pharmaceutical we could supply Pulv. Pepsin Comp. or Elix. Digestive Comp., either just as good, not quite so expensive, and certainly would do no more harm. Associations printed proprietaries and substitutes side by side and launched this matter as a propaganda of education for the physicians; material that filled no void, supplied no deficiency and appealed to many only as a means to increased profit. That some physicians did prescribe was only because they had more confidence in the druggists as compounders of the above preparations than they had in the manufacturers of the nostrum; because they were friendly enough with the individual druggist to open an opportunity for a little better profit; because they thought their patients would be more economically handled; but had the revisionists advanced a few scientific combinations, elegant pharmaceuticals or easily prepared chemicals, they would have given the druggist better material for propaganda work and appealing agents to most physicians. It was, however, to a certain extent a wasted effort, lacking in conception, devoid of originality and decidedly wanting in producing lasting results. So much for some of the contributing causes. _Now for the effect._ Business conditions have undoubtedly changed. This applies not only to the drug business, but to every line of trades or professions. Our good old friend, the family doctor, has felt the effects of the surgeon, the specialist, the hospital, the dispensary. Lawyers, the effect of the title guarantee companies and syndicated law. The dry goods and notion business has been revolutionized into department stores. The horse dealers, horseshoers and carriage builders must feel the introduction of the motor vehicle. Laborers have felt the innovation of the steam shovel, etc.