THE ALUMNI JOURNAL. 



53 



remitting in his efforts to raise himself 

 and his calling to a professional status, 

 and then I predict for him that in the 

 natural course the dispensing of medicines 

 •will come to him. 



Chemist's prescribing is quite as loud- 

 ly complained of by the doctors, and 

 when I read some of the letters and com- 

 ments which appear in the medical jour- 

 nals I am almost tempted to fear that for 

 once medicine is thinking more of its 

 share of the pecuniary reward, than car- 

 ing for suffering humanity. There is, 

 however. I am sorry to say, a great deal 

 too much prescribing by chemists, and 

 some of it is of a most reprehensible kind. 

 I know a case where a chemist treated a 

 man suffering from rodent ulcer of the 

 face for two years, all the time buoying 

 the man up with the hope that it was 

 getting better, and that he would cure it, 

 until the face was so bad, and the ulcer 

 had spread to such an extent that when 

 it came under the notice of the surgeon 

 nothing could be done for the patient. If 

 that chemist had met the man upon the 

 highway, and robbed him, he would have 

 been liable to imprisonment, but having 

 got the man into his shop he not only 

 robbed him of his money, but he rendered 

 it impossible for the man ever again to 

 be restored to health. For the dishonor 

 which such men bring upon pharmacy, 

 and for the irreparable injury which they 

 inflict upon suffering humanity I should 

 like to give them several years of penal 

 servitude. But there are innumerable 

 small accidents, and little ailments to 

 which humanity is liable, which quite 

 legitimately come within the province of 

 pharmacy to treat, and the pharmacist, 

 if he is wise, is a much safer man to treat 

 these than the clergy and the laity, who 

 are ever ready to prescribe for each other 

 upon any and all occasions. The best 

 and wisest exponents of medicine admit 

 this right on the part of pharmacy, and 



welcome the service which is rendered by 

 it to sufferers. Pharmacy may make 

 some mistakes, but I know it frequently 

 sends patients to medicine long before 

 they or their friends would think serious- 

 ly enough of the case to do so. 



There should be no rivalries or jeal- 

 ousies between medicine and pharmacy, 

 and the better qualfied each of these may 

 be to exercise its own share of the duties 

 devolving upon both, the more will each 

 of them respect the rights and the work 

 of the other. 



Before I conclude, one word on the 

 principle upon which remuneration 

 should be based. This is a question of the 

 utmost importance to the English public, 

 as well as to the pharmacists. John Rus- 

 kin says, "You do not pay judges large 

 salaries because the same amount of 

 work could not be purchased tor a small- 

 er sum, but that you may give them 

 enough to render them superior to the 

 temptation of selling justice." We can- 

 not err in applying this principle to phar- 

 macy, and deciding that the dispensing 

 chemist must be paid at a rate of re- 

 muneration which will enable him to get 

 his living honestly and openly, and ren- 

 der him superior to the temptation to in- 

 crease his profit and his income by tam- 

 pering, in ever so small a degree, with 

 the quality of the drugs he uses, and with 

 the health, and may be the lives, of dear 

 ones, and of men important to the com- 

 munity. His remuneration should also 

 enable him to devote sufficient time and 

 care to every detail of his responsible 

 work, and eliminate a very real source of 

 danger which is unavoidable if the haste 

 and the bustle of trade methods are 

 adopted by pharmacy. 



The Conference has entered upon the 

 fourth decade of its existence, and, pos- 

 sibly, I should have made a better and 

 wiser choice if I had addressed you upon 

 its past achievements, and its future pros- 



