October 1,1870.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
267 
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 1 , 1870 . 
PHARMACY AND MEDICAL PRACTITIONERS. 
Where could our good friend the Editor of the 
Lancet have been when the article on “ Pharmacy 
and Medical Practitioners” found its way into his 
columns on the 17tli ult. ? Off to the wars or, it may 
be, to the British Association for the Advancement 
of Science. Clearly a spirit quite new to our contem¬ 
porary guided the pen of the writer when, after des¬ 
canting on the enormity of a chemist receiving as 
much as “ 25. 6cZ. or 35.” for dispensing a physician’s 
prescription, lie discovered that at such a rate the 
patient’s “ drug bill is equal to, or even exceeds, the 
doctor’s bill.” 
On reading the first half of the article in question, 
we certainly felt its statements to be, in the main, 
correct, and that the duties of the dispenser should 
be separated from those of the prescriber. We do 
not, however, agree that the preparation of drugs is 
“ a mechanical tiling, to be done by a pupil in his 
second year,” but believe rather in the other proposi¬ 
tion, that it is “ a matter of pharmaceutical che¬ 
mistry,” and for that very reason we are astonished 
at the complaint afterwards made against us. 
Pharmaceutical chemistry is a science requiring 
brains as well as industry and application for its ac¬ 
quisition, and if we cannot say that a pharmacist should 
be paid for “opinion” as the doctor is, we do say unhe¬ 
sitatingly that he should be remunerated for skill in 
addition to the bare price of the drugs he is called on 
to compound. He does not expect the statutable 
35 . C d. for a six-ounce mixture, which an apothecary 
demands, but he surely, cannot be accused of extor¬ 
tion in charging at most half as much, and very often 
as little as one-third. We know not what may be 
the nature of the writer’s prescriptions; he begins 
by saying the drugs must be good and in sufficient 
quantity. Does he ever see a mixture ordered to 
contain b a drachm of quinine and 2 or 3 ounces of 
tincture, to be taken in teaspoonful doses; enough 
of it prescribed to last the patient ten or twelve 
days? Does he reflect that if the profit on drugs 
were calculated on the same scale as on the common 
necessaries of life, there is not a chemist in the whole 
kingdom who could keep his doors open? The 
butcher’s bill of a week would in many families be 
equal to the chemist’s of a year, and, without dispa¬ 
ragement to the former, we may say that the latter 
must be a man of superior education ; in attaining that 
education he must have expended a certain amount 
of hard cash, and worked for four or five years of his 
life without remuneration; that being an educated 
man, called into communication with his customer in 
a somewhat confidential manner, he must at least 
maintain a respectable position in society. As a rule 
chemists are “ not paid at once over the counter,” 
but have to wait at least as long as doctors for their 
money. 
We will tell our friend what would be the effect of 
such a reduction of charges as he proposes. The 
chemist would be driven more and more, in self- 
defence and for mere maintenance, to “ feel pulses 
over- the counter, even the pulses of affluent ladies,” 
and seeing so many more prescriptions (as of course, 
according to the new system he would do), would be 
still better qualified than he now is to play the part 
of the doctor, which we agree with the Lancet in 
thinking he should never undertake. 
Perhaps, too, even the affluent ladies might, with 
their poorer neighbours, imbibe yet greater faith in 
his skill and experience, and be even more inclined 
to consult him by reason of his moderate charges. 
SANDFORD TESTIMONIAL FUND. 
At the request of the Honorary Secretaries we have 
great pleasure in announcing to the subscribers to 
the above Fund, that the portrait of Mr. Sandford, 
which forms part of the testimonial, will be handed 
over to the Pharmaceutical Society at their Evening 
Meeting on Wednesday next. 
At the present time, when the subject of pharma¬ 
ceutical education is attracting so much attention, 
we think the discussion on the general subject of 
education at the meeting of the National Association 
for the Promotion of Social Science worthy the no¬ 
tice of our readers, especially with reference to the 
preliminary education of apprentices, and have there¬ 
fore given a brief report of the proceedings on a sub¬ 
sequent page. 
We are given to understand that the subject of the 
Betts’ suits was not brought before the Pharmaceu¬ 
tical Conference at their late meeting on account of 
its being considered by several members of the Con¬ 
ference Committee to be purely a trade matter, and 
one foreign to the scope and object of the Associa¬ 
tion. 
The Thursday evening meetings of the London 
Chemists’ Association will be recommenced on the 
6th of October, when an address will be delivered 
by Mr. J. Sands, the President. 
At King’s College the Introductory Lecture of the 
medical session will be given by Professor Wood, 
F.R.C.S., on Monday, October 3rd, at 3 p.m. 
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