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THE CHEMIST AND DRUGGIST. 
JanuaTy, 1883. 
69 
INDEX 
Leading Article— page 
Prescription of Proprietary Medicines 69 
The Month 70 
Meetings— 
Pharmacy Board of Victoria 70 
Ph \rmaceutical Society of Victoria .. 71 
Sydney 71 
TO LITERARY CONTENTS. 
PAGE | PA ®® 
Books &c., Received 71 I Frederick Wohler • 
Prosecution under the Sale and Use of j Some Notes on Foreign Pharmacy and 
Poisons Act 71 Pharmacies 73 
Brief Notes on the Genus Grevillea .. 72 Notes and Abstracts 
Report of Alkaloidal Value of Cultivated Reminiscences of a Pharmacist /o 
and Wild 3elladonna Plants 72 Determination of Alum in Bread /o 
CJ)e ©fiemtst antr Uruggtst. 
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BIRTHS. 
Eagles.— On the 26th November, at Richmond, the wife of F. T. Eagles, 
chemist, of a son. 
Goold.— On the 2nd January, at Kyneton, the wife of James Crosbie Goold, 
of a son. 
Nelson.— On the 12th December, the wife of W. Y. Nelson, chemist, 
Brunswick-street, Fitzroy, of a son (stillborn). 
MARRIAGES. 
Peddington— Irish.— On the 28th December, at the residence of the bride’s 
brother-in-law, 71 Gore-street, Fitzroy, by the Rev. P. Bailhache, W. T. 
Peddington, of Carlton, only son of the late James Peddington, to Alice 
Ruby Irish, youngest daughter of the late John Irish, 1 itzroy. 
Jones— Beresford.— On the 13th December, at the Wesleyan Church, 
Richmond, by the Rev. W. A. Quick, John Clark Cunliffe, the eldest son 
of John Clark Jones, Esq., J.P., pharmacist, Richmond, to Floranee 
Annie, only daughter of David Henry Beresford, Esq., of Melbourne. 
THE PRESCRIPTION OF PROPRIETARY MEDI- 
CINES. 
The October number of the Therapeutic Gazette contains 
an essay by Dr. Lindsley, Professor of Materia Medica at 
Yale College, in the United States of America, upon this 
subject, in which he argues that it is demoralising to the 
medical profession, and detrimental to the public welfare, 
to prescribe proprietary or secret medicines for the sick. 
As lovers of scientific pharmacy and strenuous opponents 
of all forms of nostrum-mongering quackery, we invite 
our readers to a serious consideration of this question. 
Dr. Lindsley defines proprietary medicines to be any 
medicines respecting which some person or persons possess 
an ownership, either of the method of preparation or of 
some element in their composition which is secret, or else 
of some exclusive right to the manufacture or sale, by 
which the medical profession is, on the one hand, kept in 
ignorance of their full qualities, or, on the other, deprived 
of such free and unlimited use of them as would be 
enjoyed from fair and honourable competition in their 
production. It is not, we suppose, objected that a medi- 
cine, the composition and strength of which is known, 
should be prescribed — for example, Battley’s sedative 
solution of opium, and other simple pharmaceutical pre- 
parations, the action of which is exactly established— but 
to such complex mixtures as chlorodyne, lacto peptine, et 
hoc genus omne. Many compounds containing unknown 
proportions of very active and dangerous drugs are manu- 
factured in large quantities in America, and are prescribed 
by medical men “to save themselves the trouble of 
thinking” and the pharmacist “ the exercise of any know- 
ledge of his business.” It cannot be doubted, we think, 
that the gradually increasing employment of these com- 
pounds threatens to destroy legitimate and scientific 
pharmacy, and so render nugatory the efforts which are 
being made to educate and elevate our calling. It will, 
unless efforts are made, most surely reduce the medical 
man to the position of a more or less respectable quack, to 
say nothing of the detrimental influence which it will 
have, directly or indirectly, upon the progress of thera- 
peutics, materia medica, chemistry, pharmacy, and 
hygiene. “What,” says our essayist, “will the next 
generation of medical men know about lacto peptine, 
maltine, vitalized phosphates celerina, malto-coca, hydro- 
leine, sistenine, caulocorea, viburnum compound, and an 
innumerable host of mixtures 1 These are all of ephemeral 
existence, other than what they derive from the adver- 
tising pages of medical journals and the newspapers. 
They are for the most part the invention of tradesmen, 
and in no sense represent the growth and progress of 
medical science.” 
What must be thought of such stupid “ remedies” as 
liver pads, &c.? 
In Australia, the evil complained of by honest and 
enlightened physicians in America is not so great, but we 
have observed a growing tendency towards the same 
state of things. The ceaseless efforts and ingenious 
devices of enterprising agents from these great manufac- 
turing houses will ultimately bring about a deplorable 
condition of pharmacy in Australia, unless efforts are 
earnestly made to stem the tide which would seem to be 
setting in. 
What inducement will there be for our young men to 
study and become accomplished pharmaceutical chemists 
when any errand boy would have enough knowledge to 
dispense these “ ready put up” medicines ? Dr. Lindsley 
well says, in speaking from the medical man’s point of view 
— “I doubt if any one will ever devise a process more 
suicidal to our professional interests or dangerous to the 
welfare of the sick public. There are scarcely any of the 
common ills of flesh that are not provided for by these 
shrewd manufacturing chemists, and our drug stores are 
stocked with remedies ready prepared for the cure of each. 
The druggist is just as familiar with their virtues as the 
physician. Both get their knowledge from the same 
source — viz., the wrappers and advertisements. If, then, 
