Vol. II. 



PUBLISHED BY THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION 

 OF THE COLLEGE OF PHARMACY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK 



New York, November, 1895. 



No. 11. 



PHARMACEUTICAL JURISPRUDENCE. 



By Hon. GEO. F. ROESCH. 



Delivered before the Alumni Association of the College of Pharmacy of the City of New York, 



October 9th, 1895. 



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Ladies and Gentlemen: — I must pre- 

 mise that the title of my remarks was 

 not chosen by myself, but was furnished 

 to me ready-made. My personal choice 

 would have resulted less ambitiously. 

 Likewise I do not hope to be able to sub- 

 mit an exhaustive presentation of the 

 matter in hand, but rather cursory 

 thoughts and incomplete notes which 

 may lead to further and more satisfactory 

 labors and results. 



Jurisprudence has been defined to be 

 "the practical science of giving a wise 

 interpretation to the laws and making a 

 just application of them to all cases as 

 they arise." Pharmaceutical jurispru- 

 dence may be defined as that body of 

 written and unwritten laws which affect 

 the transactions of patients and the gen- 

 eral public in their dealings with those 

 skilled in the art and practice of prepar- 

 ing and preserving drugs, and of com- 

 pounding and dispensing medicines. No 

 doubt the codes of civilized countries 

 have at all times contained provisions 

 for the regulation of the practice of phar- 



macy. Shakespeare, the "myriad-minded 

 man," as Coleridge terms him, makes us 

 acquainted in Romeo and Juliet with the 

 laws of Mantua. He gives us, too, a 

 vivid picture ot an ancient druggist and 

 his shop. Romeo has just been informed 

 of the death of Juliet. He seeks in self- 

 destruction reunion with his lost beloved. 

 "I do remember an apothecary, — 

 And hereabouts he dwells, — which late I noted 

 In tatter'd weeds, with overwhelming brows, 

 Culling of simples; meagre were his looks, 

 Sharp misery had worn him to the bones; 

 And in his needy shop a tortoise hung, 

 An alligator stuff'd, and other skins 

 Of ill-shaped fishes; and about his shelves 

 A beggarly account of empty boxes, 

 Green earthen pots, bladders, and musty 



seeds, 

 Remnants of packthread, and old cakes of 



roses, 

 Were thinly scatter'd to make up a show." 



Romeo calls on the apothecary and 

 asks him for "a dram of poison." The 

 latter answers: "Such mortal drugs I 

 have; but Mantua's law, is death to any 

 he that utters them." 



But he gives him the poison, saying: 



