160 THE AUSTRALASIAN JOURNAL OF PHARMACY. 
thanks to an enlightened Pharmacy Act, our profession is not made the receptacle 
for “failures” from another. 
My requirements at the time were few, but, owing to primitive arrangements, 
or, rather, lack of any, the order, “An ounce of tannin and glycerine, please,” 
created quite a flutter. A girl was called to search for a bottle, then ordered 
to clean it. This took so much time that the proprietor went in search of the 
damsel, who explained, apologetically, that she had to use soda. The bottle 
secured, the operation of “ making " the article had to be gone through — none 
in stock. Whilst this was doing I glanced around. Half-empty winchesters 
on the topmost shelf, sans stoppers, and sans labels in many cases, rich with 
the dust of many summers, showed the doctor’s shop. A shelf below contained 
here a bottle one-quarter full of some tincture, whilst its neighbour had perhaps 
an ounce of some essential oil, and both getting the full benefit of the hottest 
part of the pharmacy, a sight to make the (pharmaceutical) angels weep. Lack 
of polish, lack of order, lack of energy, were the marked characteristics of this 
“hall” (for “hall” it was dubbed) and the general disorder contrasted in a ludi- 
crous manner with the solemnity of the “ proprietor.” After getting four lines 
in as many bottles of different brands, and with a bit of writing paper stuck on 
for label — no printing indulged in — I struck out for home, pondering meanwhile 
upon the ease with which one could live in this lovely land of Australia. 
If the chemist in the country districts would, as he does sometimes (but 
rarely), imitate the activity and push of the storekeeper, he could, in my opinion, 
rapidly realise a competency. 
(To be continued.) 
Palatable Therapeutics. — An excellent article on this subject is contributed 
to the January number of the Therapeutic Gazette , Philadelphia, by Dr. Franklin 
H. Martin. Howhere, he writes, is the strong hand of radical reform more 
needed than in therapeutics. Until lately it seemed to be a foregone conclusion 
that the old traditions, with their long lists ,of nauseous and incompatible boluses, 
infusions, decoctions, tinctures, extracts, powders, salts, pills, oils, blisters, &c., 
must be religiously guarded from the insinuating finger of reform. The present 
state of scientific thought, however, with its intense light, is gradually dispelling: 
the fog of exclusiveness, and even in therapeutics we begin to feel that we are 
out of darkness. Dr. Martin discusses at considerable length the means by which 
practitioners can administer, and obtain all the effects of, their remedies without 
offending the most delicate palate, and concludes with the following summary, 
which will afford a fair idea of the scope of the paper:— 1. Administration of the 
alkaloids , neutral principles , and other drugs of small bulk in gelatin or sugar- 
coated granules. 2. Administration of solid extracts , crude drugs of small bulky 
and the various salts in pills of gelatin or sugar and gelatin capsules. 3. 
Administration of tasteless tinctures and other tasteless liquids alone or mixed in 
water. 4. Administration of the oils , oleoresins , oleates , and drugs soluble in oils 
in elastic capsules. 5. Administration of acids well diluted in sweetened and 
properly flavoured water. 6. Administration by hypodermic injection, by sup- 
positories, by enemata, and by inunction. “ Thus we have, adds the writer* 
“imperfect though it be, a system of palatable therapeutics. I am far from being 
entirely satisfied with it. I am convinced, however, that it is capable of being 
gradually developed to perfection. I believe it would be to the interest of our 
system, unsatisfactory as it at first might appear, if each of us would constitute 
himself a nucleus for a vigorous reform in this direction.” 
