A™anuaryfi908.m'}    American  Pharmaceutical  Association.  47 
medica  is  not  properly  taught  in  medical  schools,  and  suggested  that 
it  might  be  well  to  effect  an  interchange  of  professors  between  col- 
leges of  pharmacy  and  medical  schools,  so  as  to  give  coming  gener- 
ations of  physicians  the  advantage  of  having  some  knowledge  of 
the  resources  and  possibilities  of  modern  pharmacy. 
Dr.  James  M.  Anders,  in  opening  the  general  discussion,  asserted 
that  only  in  exceptional  cases  was  secrecy  of  any  kind  permissible 
in  the  treatment  of  disease.  One  reason  for  the  widespread  use  of 
secret  or  semi-secret  proprietaries  by  physicians  was  the  fact  that 
the  detail  man  usually  presents  his  remedies,  and  the  information 
that  he  may  have  to  offer  in  connection  with  them,  in  a  much  more 
interesting  manner  than  does  the  learned  college  professor.  There 
is  great  need  for  controlling  this  really  serious  problem,  and  active 
missionary  work  must  be  taken  up  by  the  leading  men  of  the  medi- 
cal profession,  who  must,  themselves,  become  virtuous  in  this  regard. 
Dr.  H.  C.  Wood,  Jr.,  expressed  the  belief  that  the  greatest  sin- 
ners, so  far  as  prescribing  nostrums  was  concerned,  were  to  be  found 
among  the  leading  men  of  the  medical  profession. 
Mr.  Edward  Bok,  the  editor  of  the  Ladies  Home  Journal,  said 
that,  as  a  layman,  it  was  a  pleasure  to  him  to  learn  that  the  medical 
profession  had  realized  that  this  problem  is  a  matter  for  their  very 
serious  consideration.  He  believes  that  the  people  of  this  country 
are  awakening  to  the  dangers  and  the  disgrace  of  the  nostrum. 
Literary  magazines,  farm  journals,  religious  papers  and  the  better 
class  of  publications  in  all  lines  are  ridding  themselves  of  the  adver- 
tisements of  nostrums,  which,  he  believes,  will  soon  be  restricted  to 
the  daily  papers  and  the  advertising  pages  of  medical  journals. 
Mr.  Bok  severely  arraigned  the  members  of  the  medical  profes- 
sion for  their  widespread  and  evidently  increasing  use  of  nostrums, 
and  enumerated  a  number  of  instances  which  appeared  to  evidence 
a  degree  of  incompetency  and  inconsistency,  on  the  part  of  medical 
practitioners,  that  is  all  but  appalling. 
Dr.  David  L.  Edsall  ventured  the  opinion  that  surface  indications 
do  not  fully  reflect  the  true  value  of  the  work  that  is  being  done. 
He  believes  that  members  of  the  medical  profession  are  being  influ- 
enced, changes  are  taking  place  and  advances  are  being  made. 
With  the  elimination  of  mystery  from  the  art  of  medicine,  and  the 
possibility  of  pointing  to  a  rational  foundation  for  the  use  of  drugs 
and  other  medicinal  agents  there  must  follow  marked  advances  in 
the  practical  application  of  therapeutic  measures. 
