552 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[January 7, 1871. 
everything- he desired to sec by one of the officers. Per¬ 
haps as much had not been done as might be in pointing- 
out the objects of interest in the metropolis, but it 
must be remembered that London was a largo city. It 
might, however, be desirable that such a notice as he 
had described, should be exhibited in the hall, so that 
any stranger would at once see on entering that he would 
be welcomed and that every attention would be afforded. 
Mr. Caiiteighe desired to know if the figures given 
in Mr. Howden’s address—as printed, with regard to 
the salaries paid to assistants—were strictly accurate, be¬ 
cause, although £100 to £250 as a maximum seemed 
high compared to what was paid in England, yet when 
the different circumstances and arrangements were taken 
into account, and the enormous expense of rent, food, 
-etc., he did not think assistants in America had much to 
boast of. Again, with reference to the practice of pre¬ 
scribing, he had been much pleased at learning that 
every prescription went to the druggist, who received 
them by tens and hundreds daily, but since then he had 
seen in the Medical Times an abstract from a paper road 
before the King’s County Medical Society in New 
York, in which the author complained much in the same 
■strain as medical men did in England, of the large 
amount of prescribing done by druggists, at the same 
time acknowledging that a certain section of the medical 
profession were in the habit of compounding their own 
drugs. He wished, therefore, to ask Mr. Howden 
whether it was not possible that in his travels ho had come 
in contact only with the elite of the pharmacists and of 
the medical profession, and so obtained an impression 
v-hich did not quite adequately represent the facts with 
regard to the majority of the trade. 
Mr. Howden said ho had taken great pains to esta¬ 
blish the accuracy of his facts, from the time ho entered the 
States until lie left. In every place he visited he inquired, 
not of one but of several pharmacists the amounts they 
paid their chief clerks, and the figures were those quoted 
by Mr. Carteigho. As a rule, the outside limit was £200 
a year ; but in Chicago, and one or two large and wealthy 
■‘cities, this sum might be exceeded. With reference to 
the other question, he had been assured most emphati¬ 
cally over and over again, without a dissentient voice, 
that pharmacists had nothing to do with dispensing ; that 
they steadily discountenanced it. At the same time it was 
admitted that there was sometimes a difficulty in pre¬ 
venting the younger men from prescribing for persons 
w T ith trifling maladies ; but. as a rule, prescribing was 
avoided both by principals and assistants. If done at all, 
it was practised by the less prosperous members of the 
trade, who carried on business in obscure districts, but 
they were not countenanced in so doing by the more re¬ 
spectable members of the profession. On the other 
hand, some of the less successful members of the medical 
profession encroached somewhat upon pharmacists’ pre¬ 
rogatives, some of them being partners in drug stores, if 
they did not keep them themselves. Still this was done 
on a very small scale relatively, and generally in out¬ 
lying districts, where civilization had not yet been tho¬ 
roughly established. 
Mr. Hanbury asked if he had correctly understood 
that druggists were in the habit of keeping original pre¬ 
scriptions, furnishing the patient with a copy if he re¬ 
quired it ? He did not think such a practice could be 
followed in this country. 
Mr. Howden said it had been the practice in America 
from the earliest times for the chemist to retain the pre¬ 
scription, but not to furnish a copy; thus the first per¬ 
son who dispensed a prescription retained a sort of pro¬ 
prietorship in it. This was one of the points on which 
the Americans prided themselves on being ahead of the 
•old country. 
Professor Bentley said the thanks of the Society were 
-due to Mr. Howden for the practical details and interest¬ 
ing information lie had given with regard to pharmacy 
in America. Nothing could be more interesting or use¬ 
ful than for gentlemen who had travelled to come for¬ 
ward and give the result of their experience, and ho be¬ 
lieved that high as Pharmacy stood in this country, there 
was much to be learned from other nations. He cor¬ 
dially concurred in the remarks which had been made 
with regard to showing hospitality to strangers, but 
every one who knew that Society would be perfectly 
aware that immediately on entering the doors and asking 
for the Secretary or any of the officers, they would at 
once meet with every courtesy and attention. In times 
past the same facilities had not been afforded. Now, how¬ 
ever, the doors were thrown open, and they expected 
that every pharmacist, froth whatever country lie came, 
would walk in and make himself as much at home as 
might be. Perhaps, however, it would bo well if a 
notice were inserted in the Journal, that visitors from 
abroad would have the entree, and that every facility 
would be given to pex-sons desirous of information. 
There was, no doubt, much to be learned from America 
in the way of new remedies; for instance, podophyllum 
had been in constant U 30 in America long before it was 
introduced to this country, but it wars now becoming ap¬ 
preciated, and had been included in the Pharmacopoeia. 
The same with regard to the remedy mentioned by Mr. 
Howden, Trunin Virr/iniana, which was much approved 
of by those -who had tried it, particularly the Scotch 
physicians. He would therefore repeat a remark which 
he had often made before, that it was very desirable in 
issuing new editions of the Pharmacopoeia, to follow the 
plan adopted in America, and issue a “ secondary list” of 
now remedies which had not yet been experimented on 
and thoroughly approved. By this means new remedies 
had an opportunity of being tested; if they were worth¬ 
less, they would soon be thrown on one side; if they 
were valuable, they would take their- places in the regu¬ 
lar list in future. He wished to know if ho had corr-ectly 
understood Mr. Howden that it was the practice of phy¬ 
sicians, when they wished to test the urine or any other 
secretion of their patients, to hand it over to the phar¬ 
macist instead of doing it themselves. 
Mr. Howden said he inferred from the minute instruc¬ 
tions given to the students that this was the practice. It 
must be remembered that in America every one whs 
called a physician who practised medicine, many not 
having any diploma at all. 
Professor Bentley said he did not think any compe¬ 
tent physician would do as was suggested. 
Professor Attfield said that during the past four or 
five years he had had a very large number of applica¬ 
tions from different pharmacists throughout the kingdom 
for short directions which would enable them to take 
the specific gravity of and otherwise chemically test 
urine for medical men, so that it was evident there 
was demand in this country for such knowledge on the 
part of chemists. This had" induced him to write a short 
article, which was published in the ‘ Chemist’s Almanac’ 
for 1870, and in his own ‘ Manual of Chemistry,’ and to his 
knowledge it had been extensively made use of. It was 
well known that medical men hacl not always the oppor¬ 
tunities of testing specimens of urine, and that it could 
be more quickly done by instructing the patient to take 
it to a neighbouring chemist than by themselves taking 
home the specimen and testing it in their own surgeries. 
With regard to the temperatures at which specific gravity 
was taken, there could be no doubt that a table, such as 
Mr. Howden had referred to, showing the specific gravity 
of official articles at three or four different temperatures, 
would be very useful. Such data were given with re¬ 
gard to certain matters in several works on chemistry, and 
if this were carried out for most of the official articles it 
would be one of the most useful tables that could be 
compiled. This work could be well undertaken by any 
young pharmacist who was anxious to distinguish him¬ 
self, and it might well form the subject of a paper at any 
future meeting. Similar work had been done by an as- 
j sociate of that Society a short time ago. He referred to 
