468 
GOVERNMENT PHARMACY IN INDIA. 
BY EDWARD NICHOLSON, F.C.S., STAFF ASSISTANT SURGEON, CANNANORE. 
It is undeniable that, of late years, the acquaintance of the British medical profession 
with the remedies they employ has decreased in proportion to the growing separation of 
the practice of medicine and of pharmacy. Not that the separation of the doctor’s con¬ 
sulting room from the druggist’s shop is in any way to be deplored, yet every one prac¬ 
tically acquainted with professional routine at home must acknowledge that the old 
system of the medical student passing a few years in the dispensary was of great benefit 
to him, and that those practitioners who, under more recent regulations, have not been 
obliged to make a closer acquaintance with drugs than that implied by one session’s 
attendance on a course of materia medica lectures, often find in themselves, and betray 
to others, a lamentable deficiency in the art of prescribing. 
When we consider how nugatory is the greatest diagnostic skill of the physician if he 
be unprovided with appropriate remedies, or unfortunately ignorant of the way to 
remedy by medicines the disease his knowledge of the art of medicine has taught him, 
surely the theory and practice of pharmacy, as well as a thorough knowledge of materia 
medica, must be considered essential. Nor is it to him who has taken the speciality of 
medicine to whom pharmacy is alone necessary; the surgeon requires at least as com¬ 
plete an acquaintance with the resources of pharmacy as with the practice of operative 
surgery. One of my teachers, who, though a most excellent surgeon, was, through un¬ 
steadiness of hand, anything but a first-rate operator, nevertheless was a more successful 
surgeon than many of his colleagues, more skilful in operating. The reason was simple; 
a man of varied scientific attainments, he had been a very successful physician and 
chemist before changing to the surgical branch of the profession. The consequence was, 
that in cases of operation, his happy after-treatment far more than compensated for his 
slight manual deficiency in operative skill. He did not consider his responsibility ended 
when the hernia had been released, or the calculus removed; a watchful eye and a sound 
knowledge of pharmacy steered the patient in the many dangers through which he had 
to pass. 
A feeling of gratitude for the man who taught me not to follow the too common 
fashion of making a dog-Latin prescription of drugs one knows nothing about, the sole 
result of medical skill, has led me to this digression, yet I could never sufficiently repeat 
how necessary to the doctor is a peifect knowledge of the tools he uses in his work. 
But of little use will be the most happily composed prescription if the art of the pre¬ 
server is to be marred by subsequently pharmaceutical ignorance, by the employment of 
bad drugs, or by the drugs not being procurable. These are contingencies which rarely 
occur at home in civil practice, but of frequent occurrence both at home and in India 
in the practice of the Government medical officer. Nowhere more than in the army, 
does there exist a complete listlessness and happy-go-lucky system about the pharma¬ 
ceutical arrangements. In the French service the qualified pharmacien, like the qualified 
surgeon, has to undergo a course of instruction at the Army Medical School before he 
can become qualified for employment, and the regularity and efficiency of the pharma¬ 
ceutical branch of the medical department is kept up by pharmaceutical officers of the 
various inspecting ranks. How the pharmaceutical department of the British service is 
managed I cannot say; I only know that my inquiries on the point have had no result, 
and the only apparent system is that there is no system. The drug department seems 
to be utterly unworthy of attention, except when the drug-bill is to be paid, and the 
apparent absence of system would be borne out by an inspection of any Government 
dispensary at home or in India. 
I will show that my remarks are not unfounded. In the ‘ Hospital Regulations ’ (a 
work of ’which there seem to be few copies in India, and which is a dead letter here), 
there are three pages (Section XXIII.) devoted to the subject of Surgical Instruments, 
Medicine Chests, and Medicines, in which there is not a word about what medicines are 
supplied, or under what system they are chosen, or how their good quality is guaranteed. 
A form is given for requisition of medicines and drugs, but no information is given as 
to what other drugs are allowed beyond the scanty list afforded. In fact, there are no 
pharmaceutical arrangements. 
I am but little addicted to polypharmacy, and prefer, for my own part, trusting to a 
