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THE ALUMNI JOURNAL. 



quire into the possible reasons why med- 

 ical men have so readily fallen into these 

 traps, and I think one great and most 

 important cause has been the neglect to 

 give the medical student adequate train- 

 ing in the knowledge of the properties 

 and uses of drugs. Since the abolition 

 of apprenticeship to a general practition- 

 er, which used to precede in medical 

 education the scientific course which in 

 those days was called " walking the hos- 

 pitals," the tendency has been for more 

 and more of the medical student's time 

 to be taken up with the abstract sciences 

 which are the basis of his art, and the 

 practical side of being able to treat and 

 cure disease by the intelligent use of 

 medicines has been very largely neglect- 

 ed. The result is that instead of the 

 diagnosis and the cure going together in 

 intelligent connection, they have been 

 separated from each other, and it has 

 happened to a brilliant and successful 

 student of our medical colleges that after 

 having made the most exact diagnosis 

 the limit of his powers has been reached 

 and his grim function has been to watch 

 the patient die and to be able to predict 

 the precise pathological changes which 

 would be revealed at the necropsy. An- 

 other great cause, which I am sure has had 

 a wider influence in discrediting the use 

 of drugs in the treatment of disease than 

 we can have any idea of, is the tender 

 system under which many hospitals and 

 infirmaries — where young men get their 

 first lessons — are supplied with drugs. 

 It is no secret that large quantities of in- 

 ferior and almost useless drugs are year 

 by year placed on the market, and I do 

 not think it is in the least unfair or un- 

 just to infer that these must largely find 

 their way into the institutions and into 

 the possession of those who make the 

 price their sole criterion of value. It fol- 

 lows', quite in logical sequence, that 

 teachers and taught are influenced by 

 the variable and uncertain results ob- 



tained, and that sometimes in despair 

 and sometimes in contempt there is pro- 

 duced a lack of faith in drugs as instru- 

 ments of healing. I do not underrate in 

 the smallest degree the importance of the 

 medical student acquiring sound and ex- 

 tensive knowledge of physiology, pa- 

 thology and so forth ; they are absolute- 

 ly essential subjects, and I would not be- 

 little the triumphs and advances which 

 recent years have seen in these direc- 

 tions, but the subject of profound im- 

 portance to the patient is to be cured. 

 The exorbitant claims sometimes ad- 

 vanced on behalf of such subjects as 

 physiology, pathology and chemistry 

 have been fraught with no little danger 

 to the art and practice of medicine, and 

 it has happened that many a general 

 practitioner, who in the realm of physi- 

 cal danger would be a hero, has been 

 deterred by a sneer or an assumption of 

 superiority on the part of some special- 

 ist, from con ter, ding for the reality of 

 the knowledge which is the result of his 

 life-long experience in the use of drugs, 

 and the knowledge itself has, in some 

 cases, been lost to the service of medi- 

 cine in its combat with disease. 



To return to Pharmacy, the small 

 amount of relative success which has re- 

 sulted from the work of the Pharmaceu- 

 tical Society is in my opinion largely due 

 to the grave mistake which was made in 

 the fifth clau.se of the Pharmacy Act, 

 1868. By that clause it was decided ta 

 place on the register, without examina- 

 tion and without fee, all who claimed to 

 have been in business as chemists and 

 druggists prior to December 31st, 1868. 

 If an adequate fee for this privilege of 

 being registered had been imposed, I 

 think it would have had the effect of 

 considerably reducing the number of 

 tho.'^e who desired to be placed on the 

 register from purely trade motives. 



[7b be coniitiued.'] 



