300 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[October 8, 1870. 
dispensing of their medicines to chemists is to be found in 
the high prices charged by chemists for medicines. These 
prices are such as to be of themselves a heavy and exhausting 
bill to people of humble means. Mixtures are charged at 
the rate of Is. Sd. or 2s. apiece, and other medicines corre¬ 
spondingly, so that the dispensing of an ordinary prescrip¬ 
tion easily costs 2s. 6d. or 3s. People whose family doctor 
does not supply them with medicines find that their drug bill 
is equal to or even exceeds the doctor’s bill. Now this ap¬ 
pears to us quite unreasonable. The percentage of profit to 
the chemist is monstrously excessive, allowing for all the 
incidental expenses of his business. And the fact of paying 
as much to the man who dispenses a prescription as to the 
man who writes it is a complete want of distinction between 
two very distinct services, and a reductio ad absurdum. But 
this is not all. The chemist is paid at once over the counter, 
in the full urgency of the want of the patient. The doctor is 
probably not paid for months, when the chance of being 
paid at all is greatly reduced. It is hopeless to think of me¬ 
dical practitioners giving up the dispensing of their own pre¬ 
scriptions until chemists have shown them how patients can be 
supplied sufficiently and satisfactorily with drugs at prices 
which do not inconvenience them, and do not impair their 
ability to pay their doctor.” 
It seems a most extraordinary fact that a chemist in one 
part of town should charge as much for preparing a pre¬ 
scription as a licensed apothecary or medical practitioner 
should charge for both visit and medicine, in another. The 
doctors are a most generous race; we must be friendly with 
them, for they are our best friends; and if our journals are 
going to bicker, the sooner a better spirit is imparted into 
the controversy the better for us all. 
George Mee. 
79, Grosvenor Hoad, Highbury, N. 
Sir,—The article in the Lancet contains statements so in¬ 
correct and an argument so utterly false, as to deserve some 
notice. The writer must be grossly ignorant of chemists’ 
business, or he would have known that instead of cash pay¬ 
ments, one, two and three years’ credit is more the rule than 
the exception; and that tlie practitioner who obtains his fee 
for prescribing orders ingredients and quantities very dif¬ 
ferent from those he would use if he prepared the medicines 
himself. I have now dispensed the following from a general 
practitioner:— 
R. Quinse Disulph., 
Terri Sulph., aa gr. xx 
Acid. Sulph. Dil. 5iij 
Sp. Chloroform. 5ij 
Sp. JEther. Nit. 5 v j 
Aquae ad gviij 
f. Mist. Cap. coch. j medium c. aqua ter die. 
The profit on this, at Is. 8<i. or 2s., would certainly not be 
“ monstrously excessivebut it would be a very extraordi¬ 
nary occurrence to find any private surgery sending out such 
a medicine at all. The writers think it absurd that the in¬ 
ferior, who dispenses the deadly compound ordered by a 
practitioner, should receive as much in payment, and imply 
that if the chemist is paid for the ingredients, he has no right 
to look for any remuneration for his skill, care or time. I 
have two prescriptions before me now in preparation, and I 
can see nothing at all absurd in supposing my responsibility 
for the accuracy of these formulae should be repaid in a different 
manner, and at a higher price than for merely rolling out 
soap and bread-crumbs for a surgeon’s private practice:— 
R. Strychniae gr. i 
Acid. Pliosph. Dil. 5ij 
Aquae Destill, jiv 
Sol. Strychnia. 
Sol. Strychniae jv 
Acid. Hydroyanic. Dil. jiss 
Aquae 51- 
Take 15 drops three times a day with meals. 
R. Ext. Colchici 5i 
Strychniae gr. i 
Ext. Aconiti gr. vj 
Acid. Arseniosi gr. ij. J. H. 
Fiat pilulae xx. 1 pill three times a day after food. 
Silvered. 
If medical men find it necessary to give such concentrated 
forms for the good of their patients, they should remember 
that much of the success attending their experiments depends 
upon the dispenser, and that he is deserving of a higher 
reward than the mere profit on the articles used. If, as the 
writer argues, it is hopeless to expect practitioners to give 
up dispensing their own medicine, so is it equally futile to ex¬ 
pect chemists to discontinue to prescribe in such a manner 
as not to inconvenience those who seek their advice instead 
of paying the doctor. 
I am, Sir, your obedient servant, 
' John Wade. 
Hospital Dispensing. 
Dear Sir,—Having been engaged in hospital dispensing 
nearly five years, I can most fully endorse all that Mr. Barber 
says on the subject. 
In reply to “ A Pharmacist,” I would say I do not think 
that the case he mentions is an “ average type of hospital 
dispensing,” or “a waste of public moneyat least, it is not 
a type of mine or that of six other hospitals I am acquainted 
with. It is true a public dispenser is compelled to be as 
quick as possible, and therefore he could not waste his and 
the patient’s time (who, perhaps, has been waiting his or her 
turn to see the doctor for two or three hours) by asking for 
bottles as politely as a chemist would ask a customer when 
no one else is waiting to be served. 
Of course I do not justify the giving of corks and labels to 
the patients themselves to put on any kind of bottle, for that 
is the dispenser’s work and not the patient’s. My own plan 
of dispensing (i. e. with regard to bottles and labels) is— 
First, to have a large notice posted in the waiting-room to 
the effect that “ no medicines, etc., will be dispensed in any 
bottles which have been used for domestic purposes, such as 
wine, beer and spirit bottles, etc. Proper medicine bottles 
may be bought in the dispensary.” So that patients may 
bring their own bottles or buy them at any shop just as they 
choose; but, to save time, and as a convenience to them, I 
keep a stock of bottles, which they are generally very glad to 
get. 
Secondly, I use labels printed in bold type, with the name 
of the institution at the top, and labels so plain can be read 
by most patients if they are only able to spell. 
With such precautions I have only heard of one mistake, 
and that was by a woman who went to her cupboard in the 
dark, and drank from a “lotion bottle” without measuring 
the dose. Happily no harm resulted. 
I am, Sir, yours obediently, 
Wm. Billing Orton, A.P.S. 
’Manchester, Sept. 24 th, 1870. 
Chloral Hydrate. 
Sir,—I should esteem it a favour if any of your scientific 
correspondents could inform me, through the medium of your 
Journal, what are the principal incompatibles of chloral 
hydrate. F. B. 
“ Consternatio ” says:—“ In answer to the inquiry by 
‘ Spes ’ in last week’s Journal, as to what ‘acids, oxides and 
salts ’ are ‘ compounds ’ (a description of which is required 
in the Minor Examinations on Chemistry), I think that I 
should be right in suggesting acid, nitro-hych’ochlor. dil. and 
acid, sulphuric, arom. as “compound” acids, and soda tarta- 
rata, alumen, antim. tartaratum, and ferri et quinice eitras as 
‘compound’ salts.” 
T. G. B. (Worthing).—As the new notation is that which 
is now most generally used, it is necessary for students to 
become acquainted with it. But the present being a time 
of transition from the use of one system to another, a know¬ 
ledge of the old notation is also requisite. 
Au Revoir.-°-A very full knowledge of formulae is required. 
T. L. (Strood) asks, “Would any brother apprentice 
inform me where I could obtain a map of Gaul (temp. Julii 
Csesaris) without buying another work.” 
C. W. Brown (Plymouth.)—The liquor potassae perman* 
ganatis of the Pharmacopoeia should contain four grains of 
permanganate of potash to the ounce; this, it will be seen by 
reference to a recent estimation published in our columns, is 
half the strength of Condy’s fluid. 
Instructions from Members and Associates respecting the 
transmission of the Journal should be sent to Elias Brem- 
ridge, Secretary, 17, Bloomsbury Square, W.C. 
Advertisements to Messrs. Churchill, New Burlington 
Street, London, W. Envelopes to be endorsed for “ Pharm. 
Journ.” 
