thousand ways. But, if it were banished utterly, what would
result? There are other methods of fabricating the useful
products named, and many others, without the use of alcohol, but
the processes would be rather inconvenient and more costly. The
banishment of alcohol would not deprive us of a single one of
the indispensable agents which modern civilization demands, and
neither would chemical science be retarded by its loss."

"It must be remembered that modern science has given us
glycerine, naptha, bisulphide of carbon, pyroligneous products,
carbolic acid and a hundred other agents which are capable of
taking the place of alcohol in a very large number of appliances
and processes."

The sale of liquor in drug-stores is beginning to be deplored by the
more respectable pharmacists. At the annual meeting of the Massachusetts
State Pharmacists' Association in 1895 the president said in his
address:--

"One thing that every pharmacist, who has the best interests of
his calling at heart, must bear in mind is that the liquor part
of their business is being, and must be, slowly crowded out.
Public sentiment has changed greatly in the last few years, and
instead of all being classed alike, the line has been sharply
drawn, and the stores that sell the least amount of liquor that
they possibly can are gaining the confidence and esteem of the
public, and consequently their business is growing from year to
year, while the others are losing ground and dropping lower and
lower."

The _Evening Record_ of Boston contained the following in its issue of
March 7, 1896:--

"The number of flagrant offences on the part of druggists in
certain no-license towns--offences not only against the liquor
laws, but also against the laws of decency and humanity--brought
before the board of pharmacy, would appall the public if they
were known. The Looker-On has seen the record of several of
these druggists as transcribed from the police courts and they
are very black records. One druggist after selling liquor over
and over again to one customer, and several times getting him
completely intoxicated, finally deposited him one night in a
snowbank, in a state of frozen stupor, where he would have
frozen to death had not the wife of the druggist's clerk
threatened to complain to the police unless he was rescued.