THE STRENGTH OF DRUGS AND THE DOSE. 4 1 



ness point of view, the higher attenuations of all drugs prepared 

 strictly according to the rules laid down b}- Hahnemann for the 

 guidance of the pharmaceutical druggist, are worth more pecu- 

 niarily than those of a lower scale, and the druggist should be 

 paid more for them; their proper preparation involves an immense 

 amount of labor and hard work, which it is quite unreasonable to 

 expect a druggist to expend if he is not paid for it: we are strongly 

 of opinion that pharmaceutical druggists are not without blame 

 themseh'cs for not demanding suitable remuneration for work of 

 this sort, but on the other hand they have grave difficulties to 

 contend with in making their customers rightly appreciate the 

 matter, until it has come to this that only druggists of high 

 standing who value their reputation more than their banker's 

 account, can be confidently relied upon to strictly adhere to the 

 pharmaceutical rules aforesaid; to this most unfortunate fact may 

 be attributed the failure and disappointment so often heard of at 

 the meetings of medical societies when practitioners are favoring 

 their professional brethren with all and sundry of their experi- 

 ences, whereupon no little discredit devolves on the devoted heads 

 of those who through good and evil report are staunch to the true 

 faith; in a very large number of instances failure is due in prac- 

 tice to indifferent pharmacy ; and for this indifferent pharmacy a 

 stingy, mean short-sighted public is mainly responsible, while at 

 the same time close-fisted medical practitioners do much to render 

 the druggists' experience a very sorry and disappointing one, by 

 becoming their own dispensers; hence the importance of seeing to 

 it that drugs are purchased of those whose word may be relied 

 upon, and of never failing to elicit from the druggist that the 

 remedies sold are strictly in accordance with the prescription. 

 The author feels that he is justified in going somewhat closely 

 into this matter of attenuation, because of the important bearing 

 it has on clinical (bedside) results, and in again reiterating its 

 importance, it is felt that it will not detract from the urgency of 

 this branch of the subject when it is borne in mind that Dr. Car- 

 roll Dunham, one of the most scientific and successful physicians 

 the United States of America ever knew, was one of its most 

 strenuous advocates: the author in his practice among the lower 

 animals, owes much of his success to information gleaned from 

 this learned man's writings, and it is with feelings of personal 



