622 
THE CHEMIST AND DRUGGIST 
October 6, 1896 
impress again and again npon students, especially upon those 
who are beginning their career. It is that you should 
conscientiously realise your responsibilities, atd fully 
appreciate your opportunitits, taking the utmost advantage 
of tfce excellent means of instruction and training, both 
scientific and practical, wh’ch are now at your command. 
Your time is short, it rushes along with startling rapidity, 
and you cannot afford to waste the smallest portion of 
it, of course with due regard (o needful recreation. In 
looking over the Calendar, I have been deeply impressed 
with the high character, extent and thoroughness of the 
instruction which has been provided for jou ; and with the 
eminent position and scientific attainments of your pro- 
fessors, lectuiers, and demonstjators. Moieover, you have 
a Museum and Liboiatories which are the envy of most 
medical schools, with an excellent Library and Reading- 
room ; while jour ambition and zeal are stimulated by piizes, 
scholarsbipF, and valuable fellowships. Ceitaicly your 
advantages are great, and I strongly advise joutoliveup 
to them. As a teacher and examiner of some experience, 
however, I feel bound to say that 1 do not expect you will 
all follow my advice. The highest aim which a large pro- 
portion of students seem to have at the present day, what- 
ever their line may happen to be, is to pass the requisite 
examinauons, which will enable them to assume a certain 
title or titles, indicated by appropriate letters, in “ big type,” 
after their names, and to reap the practical benefits which 
such titles are supposed to bring with them. Towards this 
end they do just as much as they think necessary, and no 
more, whatever their opportunities may be; nor do they 
despise the adventitious help of the “grinder” or “coach” 
who can give them a lilt over the stile. And then if 
they fail, they blame, not themselves, bub the system of 
examination, which in reality fairly tests their knowledge, 
and only prevents those from passing who are not com- 
petent ; or, it may be, some individual examiner, who 
probably is as harmless and innocent as a “ babe unborn.” 
Now, I don’t wish to be hard upon you, the students 
of the Pharmaceutical Society, and of course the preceding 
remarks do net apply to you at all, for I feel sure jou will 
agree with me that jour examinations must be founded on a 
sound basis, and sufficiently comprehensive and stringent to 
show that you are compstent to undertake the duties which 
will devolve upon you in your future career. To pass such 
examinations is the lowest point that you can possibly aim 
at ; but you may go as far beyond as your ambition prompts, 
or your opportunities permit. I cannot see any reason 
whatever why this institution should not train students to be 
professors ar.d teachers in the subjects which come within its 
scope, or even prepare them for allied scientific and profes- 
sional pursuits not immediately connected with pharmacy as 
a business. It is with great pleasure that I note amongst 
those who have at various times been partially educated here 
the names of many friends, and even students of mine, who 
have since found an opetiog in other directions, and have 
highly distinguished themselves in their several spheres of 
work. If any of you can tqual or surpass your predecessors, 
you are perfectly at liberty to do so, and to that end I can 
only again urge you to avail yourselves thoroughly of the 
opportunities which are now within your reach, and not to 
be afraid to aim high. 
Relatio;?s of Medical Men to Pharmacists. 
Permit me now to refer briefly to two or three practical 
questions bearing upon the relations existirrg between the 
medical profession and that of pbarmecy. Although they 
do not immediately conccin you as pharmaceutical students, 
I think it is desirable to draw your attention to them, for 
no doubt sooner or later most of you will be interested 
in them, and they are of decided importance to the general 
public. 
I have already alluded to the social relations between the 
two bodies, and I now further affirm that there is certainly 
no inherent antagonism between the medical man and the 
pharmaceutical chemist in any sense whatever, as a super- 
ficial glance at much that is going on might lead one to 
suppose. On the contrary, there should be nothing ap- 
proaching want of harmony or discord between them, and 
they ought to work together earnestly and cordially for the 
common good. In a state of perfect social order the one 
would really be tLe complement of the other, but although 
this desirable relation is not practicable at present, there is- 
no reason whatever why they should not pursue their several 
vocations in a thoroughly tolerant and friendly spirit. This 
does not by any means imply that the views of doctors and 
pharmacists are always the same, or their interests identical. 
It may happen that ihey are really opposed. For instance, 
there are a great many therapeutic agents of the highest 
value which are not of the nature of drugs. Now, I am not 
one of those superior persons who are sceptics as to the 
usefulness of medicines, as they are about most other things, 
but I honestly confess that as a professor of therapeutics and 
a practical physician I do not place them first, that 1- 
frequently recommend or use other agents in preference, and 
that not uncommonly I have to check very considerably the 
injudicious employment of drugs by patients, or even by 
young and inexperienced doctors. Now from the pharmacist’s 
point of view naturally this is not “ good business,” and he 
cannot be human if he does nob feel an instinctive fondness 
for the physician who prescribes on an extensive scale. I 
feel sure, however, that no rational and honest chemist would 
bear me a grudge because 1 cannot conscientiously contribute 
to his prosperity and well being to the degree that I should 
like to, if circumstances were only more propitious, and my 
mental bent were more in his direction. 
Assuming then that we are well-disposed towards each 
other, I, as a member of the medical profession, claim from, 
you pharmacists protection against certain dangers aud evils 
with which we are really impotent to deal. In the first 
place we look to you to guarantee, within reasonable limits, 
that we are supplied with efficient, active, pure, and un- 
adulterated drugs. As your President has put it, you are 
supposed to be “competent to know what you sell, to analyse 
everything you sell, and to know that it is what you say it 
is;” and if pharmacists generally only act up conscientiously 
to this standard, the medical profession will be perfectly 
satisfied. I fear, however, that is by no means always 
reached, and that deliberate substitution of drugs other tham 
those prescribed, or systematic adulteration, is not unknown 
even amongst qualified pharmaceutical chemists. Why this 
mean, contemptible, and most iniquitous variety of fraud 
and theft is only punished with a fine, while a poor starving 
wretch who steals a loaf of bread, or a turnip from a field', 
to appease the pangs of hunger, is put into prison, I cannot 
conceive. If I had my will, I would give the man or woman 
who adulterates anything, but especially food and medicines, 
a very hot time. 
Irresponsible Pharmacy. 
I must pass over the questions relating tc patent and 
quack medicines, merely remarking that a judicious dis- 
cretion in dealing with them may be fairly expected on thei* 
part of pharmaceutical chemists, especially when they con- 
tain powerful or poisonous ingredients; and will certainly 
steer clear of homoeopathy, lest I start another lively and 
adverting correspondence in the Jimes. I should like, 
however, to say a few words about what I may term 
“ irresponsible pharmacy,” upon which I very much wish 
that the Pharmaceutical Society could exercise some check. 
Pharmacy is really in a somewhat curious state just now, 
and if one takes up any medical or pharmaceutical journal op 
periodical, not to epeak of general and, above all, so-called 
“ religious ” newspapers, the number and variety of prepara- 
tions and compounds one sees advertised, for every kind of 
complaint, each vying with the other in brag and 
boastfulness, are positively most confusing and overwhelm- 
ing. Moreover, every drug is so conveniently and attractively 
prepared for us — individually and in all sorts of combinations 
— that the art of piescribing stands a very good chance of 
dyirg out, and indeed even the British Pharmacopoeia 
seems hardly to be needed any longer. Up to a certain 
point, of course, this is very pleasant and helpful, and we 
owe a deep debt of gratitude to many pharmaceutical and 
manufacturing chemists of honourable type for what they 
have done in this direction, but there are limits. Amongst 
other matters, I affirm that it is decidedly wrong that so many 
drugs, seme of them very powerful and even dangerous, are 
now supplied freely to the public at large in the form of 
tabloids, capsules, and the like, which they can consume or 
use in other ways to any extent at their own discretion, and 
altogether apart from medical supervision. Again, I must 
enter my emphatic protest against the extieme haste which- 
