PHARMACEUTICAL ETHICS. 
153 
the stereotyped answer, a small business cannot afford pure pharmacy: the 
sheet-anchor of commercial enterprise rests in well-selected sundries. But 
when in London we see certain houses, all known by name, not one of which 
has found pharmacy a despicable source of income; not one of which sprang 
ready-made from behind the clouds, but by patient unwavering perseverance in 
one definite course worked out its present eminence, we may infer without pre¬ 
sumption that their mode of conducting business is neither romantic nor 
irrational. 
The question of advertisement, as a means of trade extension, is such a 
marked feature of modern times, that it cannot be altogether passed over, more 
especially as it is a distinctly ethical consideration. You will find the 
whole subject most impartially discussed in a little work called ‘ La Bhar- 
macie,’ by M. Fumouze, a review of which appeared some time back in the 
pages of the Journal. He decides in favour of advertising. The right use of 
advertisement is best illustrated by showing what is not right. When a man 
advertises his own private nostrums for the cure of all sorts of complaints which 
in the very nature of things are not likely to be cured or even relieved by one 
and the same remedy, it is an abuse of the advertising privilege. When he re¬ 
presents a medicine as “ Oil of this ” or “ Extract of that,” knowing that is only 
partially so, or perhaps not at all, it is an abuse. Mr. Edward Wood has summed 
up the exhibition of such fictitious articles as “ wholesale prescribing of the 
worst kind, viz. the giving of advice unsought to a person unseen by a person, 
incompetent.” There is no objection to a man having private nostrums, but 
the upright man will act uprightly with regard to them. 
With regard to English pharmacy, the following are the arguments against:— 
1. It is not consistent with the professional character of the pharmaceutist. 
Ho medical practitioner dare advertise, directly or indirectly, without fear of 
losing social and professional standing. 
‘2. It is well known that many great houses of established reputation have 
never availed themselves of advertisement as a trade expedient. 
3. Many world-known names have been created without resort to this parti¬ 
cular agency. 
On the other hand, the arguments in its favour are as follows;— 
1. Given as a problem to define accurately what is advertisement and what isnot. 
2. Many of our leading men, including more than one who has occupied the 
presidential chair, are most persevering and systematic in its use. 
8. It has been occasionally, though not systematically, employed by houses 
governed by the severest and most rigid regulations. 
4. Competition is now in so keen a phase that there is a danger in our modern 
times of being swept away through its neglect. 
5. In the highest of all professions, the clerical, we are made aware of any 
special service by the medium of advertisement, and we learn by the direct 
agency of a column in the ‘ Times,’ that the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of 
Oxford, or that Monseigneur Manning will appeal to the sympathy of the public. 
On these grounds, in spite of my antecedents of theory, practice, and educa¬ 
tion, I am inclined to decide that the right use of advertisement is not contrary 
to the true observance of the ethics of pharmacy. 
I cannot leave the subject without repeating my too often expressed opinion, 
that a working laboratory is a great source of power as regards trade extension. 
I still think that some of the good money employed on decoration, on splendid 
windows and architectural embellishment, might be better spent on a selection, 
of useful pans, a moderate-sized still, and a few convenient forms of apparatus. 
I still think that whoever once has tried the plan of making his own preparations 
would ponder long and deeply before he ventured on the doubtful economy of 
purchasing them elsewhere. 
