656 
THE PHARMACEUTIST AS A MERCHANT. 
the slowly accumulated experience of an active life of years. I know of many young 
men who, after a stay of one or two years in a subordinate position in a drug store, have 
started in business full fledged, in their own belief, as capable and experienced Pharma¬ 
ceutists ; such gravitate naturally to the position in which they properly belong among 
merchants, remain incapable and become obscure. 
We all know this hasty tendency is peculiar to American youth; ambitious to reach 
the goal of future hopes, it leaves the formation of correct business habits to the chance 
of coming years; this it is that crowds our cities and towns with so many ignorant 
druggists—men who pick up the business of pharmacy as they would that of selling 
Yankee notions, live and succeed in a small way, or fail ingloriously; in either event, 
blissfully ignorant of the capabilities of the art in whose borders they have to tread. 
After a varied experience of twenty years in pharmacy, I am possessed of the strongest 
conviction that a rigid adherence to principles of integrity, to honour, and to truth, in 
conducting our business, is most surely conducive to its success; therefore, business 
policy should dictate such conduct, aside from moral conviction. 
We all know a thousand triclcs in trade, the prevarication, the exaggeration, and other 
nameless ways of making things appear as they are not, and which so often overshoot 
the mark, till it is a common thing for the community to allow an ample margin on 
almost everything that comes from a drug store, between semblance and reality, utter¬ 
ance and truth. This is not as it should be; for truthfulness, in all our ways, is the 
best business policy, as it is most satisfactory to the conscience. 
Mow, supposing our beginner to be possessed with a fair education, moral, ethical, and 
scientific, but no experience as a business man, what points are there to be observed in 
trade that will be most likely to lead to pecuniary success ? 
There are many, of small importance singly, but in the aggregate help to swell the 
tide that leads on to fortune. 
The Pharmaceutist as a merchant must be industrious; the details of the business are 
•so numerous as to tax, almost to its utmost, his endurance and patience. 
When the aggregate yearly business is any considerable sum from the retail sales of 
medicines and accessories, the details to accomplish that require a vast number of steps 
and much labour of hand and brain ; so it becomes a fixed fact that there is no moment, 
in a well-organized business, that there is not something to do; there are no leisure hours. 
This industry must be personal , too, in a proprietor, to be seconded by his assistants ; 
this industry also implies a personal eye to all the details of a business, consequently 
there can be little leisure for outside occupations ; better do one business well than trust 
to the chances of success in two or three at once, none properly conducted. 
What is termed business tact , as it may be applied to our art, consists in knowing, as 
it were intuitively, how to win friends and draw customers around you. 
It is shown in a proper selection of a business stand. Had I the choice between a 
good stand with little means to expend in fixtures, and an indifferent one with rich fix¬ 
tures, I should choose the former, trusting to the future to make up the last want. 
It is shown in the fittings of a store; rich without extravagance, or plain w r ith neat¬ 
ness, either may be elegant. Convenience and appliances which favour the rapid dis¬ 
patch of business, should not be overlooked as a saving of help and labour, and conse¬ 
quently a means of profit. 
Tact is particularly shown in a courteous bearing towards customers, implying an ap¬ 
preciative sense of their patronage, with a self-possession and manly self-respect that is 
above fawning or flattering. Here it is that an intelligent understanding, or knowledge 
of the goods in which we deal—their history, their merits, their qualities, their pecu¬ 
liarities—is of such great assistance in our business in making sales. If you possess the 
ability (and you should possess the will) to explain to the customer, with curiosity ex¬ 
cited, that which he seeks to know, or to impart that which you have led him to desire 
to know, and you do it in a self-confident yet truthful way, it is always a great point 
gained; that customer will always respect your intelligence ; his opinions in all that 
relate to the art will be moulded by your own, and he will be sure to be your regular 
patron. 
I believe in stating the merits of an article decidedly and truthfully ; good goods tell 
no after-tales of deceit; poor ones, well puffed, most surely will. 
Business tact is shown in treating your clerks as if they were friends, and so making 
hem such. Kind words and even temper are consistent with a sufficiently rigid disci- 
