THE NEW YORK JOURNAL OF PHARMACY 



of prescription l)usincss is expressed as 

 a ratio to the total business rather than 

 as a niininmm fixed quantity. . A man 

 running- a business of only ten prescrip- 

 tions a day should b^ eligible, if his pre- 

 scription receipts represent say, 30 to 50 

 per cent, of his total business; whereas 

 a corporation store putting up fifty pre- 

 scriptions a day should be ineligible if 

 it were shown that the prescription 

 receipts represent only 10 per cent, of 

 the total sales. 



4. He should show his interest in his 

 prescription department by having it 

 properly equipped with the necessary 

 appliances and properly located in his 

 store. 



Any druggist sticking his prescription 

 department on a hot and stuffy platform, 

 midway between floor and ceiling in 

 order to use the space properly belonging 

 to it for some rankly commercial pur- 

 pose, shows by that act that he considers 

 his prescription business of minor im- 

 portance and by that act renders himself 

 ineligible to membership in the Institute. 

 Again, any druggist who is content to- 

 run his prescription department with 

 broken graduates, and cracked mortars 

 and with a scarcity of even these, shows 

 he does not care for prescription busi- 

 ness. As to suitable appliances, these are 

 to be the subject of a paper at this meet- 

 ing, so the only suggestion I offer is 

 that the list should be based on the needs 

 of a ten-prescription-a-day business and 

 that of course a proportionally larger list 

 must be formed in those stores where 

 more than ten prescriptions are put up 

 each day. 



5. He luust have the knowledge and 

 the ability necessary to perform the tests 

 of the pharmacopoeia and routine analy- 

 sis in clinical chemistry and must have in 



his store the necessary appliances to carry 

 out such .work. 



A painter's supply store, some years 

 since, used in its advertising literature 

 the legend "a. paint seller should know 

 his paints as a druggist knows his drugs," 

 which strikingly indicates the estimate set 

 by the public upon the druggist's ability. 

 The colleges of pharmacy have spent 

 years teaching students how to detect 

 adulterations in chemicals, how to assay 

 drugs and how to determine the quality 

 of powdered drugs by means of the 

 microscope. 



It is not, therefore, asking too much 

 to expect the "member of the institute" 

 to be sufficiently interested in the prod- 

 ucts sold under his name to be .willing 

 to examine these by means of official 

 tests. 



As to work in clinical chemistry — such 

 as urinary analysis — this is the logical 

 side-line for the prescription pharmacist, 

 and it might be added that unless the 

 pharmacist is ready to assist the physician 

 in this direction, he can scarcely expect 

 to interest the modern practitioner. 



6. Membership is limited to a three- 

 year term, and is renewable only when 

 the member's qualifications remain un- 

 changed. 



In all callings is found the condition 

 that certain representatives vested with 

 the prerogatives of the occupation in 

 question, find more profitable work and 

 embarrass their original calling by using 

 its prerogatives in their new field of 

 endeavor. A man may honor himself 

 and his country in the national legislative 

 halls. Or he may be a great corporation 

 lawyer and as such win great wealth and 

 distinction. But when a man who has 

 won a reputation in Congress spends his 

 vacation looking after the interests of a 



