THE ALUMNI JOURNAL 113 



good pharmacist. Evils that have slowly grown during genera- 

 tions cannot be abolished abruptly, particularly where they are 

 the outgrowth of ignorance, prejudice or greed. But science and 

 truth will surely, even if slowly, find the remedy, and combined 

 by mutual respect and friendship the two professions will work 

 harmoniously together. 



The other important factor — a practical one — is the considera- 

 tion of public health. Just as a young man will not profit by his 

 father's experience, but rather go himself through a maze of errors 

 and mistakes, so our young nation refuses in many cases to profit 

 by the experience of other civilized nations, who have found out 

 long ago that the dispensing physician is as dangerous a person 

 as the prescribing pharmacist. 



The responsibility for the life of a citizen should not be left to 

 one person and a controlling check against possible mistakes estab- 

 lished wherever possible. This is such a simple axiom in all other 

 phases of our lives that it almost appears trite to repeat it. The 

 dispensing physician claims to be above this possibility, for he gen- 

 erally considers himself infallible. One of his dearest arguments 

 is, that druggists make mistakes and that he therefore must dis- 

 pense himself. Certainly they make mistakes, every human being 

 is subject to this common frailty, and the man who claims to make 

 no mistake the most dangerous of all. But if men who devote 

 their whole lives to the dispensing of medicines and know that a 

 mistake will ruin their reputation and existence are not above the 

 possibilities of errors, how much more must other men be liable to 

 err, who are not trained for this work and are often ignorant of 

 the intricacies of chemical changes or the potency of drugs? I have 

 given this matter very careful observation and I believe that for 

 every one mistake made by a pharmacist, ten are made by dispen- 

 sing physicians. If a pharmacist dispenses corrosive sublimate in 

 place of calomel, the whole country will know it in twenty-four 

 hours and he will be called to account, and justly so. If a dis- 

 pensing physician makes the same mistake, the public will never 

 know it, perhaps the dispenser does not know it himself, and 

 nobody will be held responsible. I could cite instances that dis- 

 pensing physicians came running into my pharmacy and with 

 trembling lips asked me to antidote for such a poison that they 

 had given by mistake; for in their excitement they had forgotten 

 their toxicology. And I am happy to say that I was always able 



