1 88  American  Pharmaceutical  Association.  {^mAJp™r;iw3arm' 
THE  PHILADELPHIA  BRANCH  OF  THE  AMERICAN 
PHARMACEUTICAL  ASSOCIATION. 
FEBRUARY  MEETING. 
The  stated  meeting  of  the  Philadelphia  Branch  of  the  American 
Pharmaceutical  Association,  held  on  February  4,  1908,  was  devoted 
to  a  discussion  of  "  The  Responsibilities  of  the  Retail  Druggist  in 
the  Spread  of  the  Great  Black  Plague." 
The  subject  proper  was  introduced  by  Dr.  Henry  Beates,  Jr.,  who 
discussed  "  The  Relation  of  Medical  Practice  Acts  to  Contagious  and 
Infectious  Diseases."  He  called  particular  attention  to  the  fact  that 
in  populous  communities  the  so-called  fundamental  privileges  or 
rights  of  the  individual  must  of  necessity  be  subordinated  to  the 
welfare  of  the  community  as  a  whole. 
He  further  called  attention  to  the  generally  accepted  definitions 
for  what  is  understood  by  "  practice  of  medicine,"  and  pointed  out 
that  the  usually  accepted  right  of  "  self-medication  "  is  not  permis- 
sible for  persons  suffering  from  a  contagious  or  infectious  disease, 
particularly  when  the  health  and  even  the  lives  of  others  may  be  in 
jeopardy. 
Dr.  A.  A.  Uhle,  Assistant  Instructor  in  Genito-Urinary  Diseases 
at  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  presented  a  rather  exhaustive 
paper  on  "  Gonorrhea,  its  Nature,  Prevalency,  Recognition  and 
Treatment,"  in  the  course  of  which  he  quoted  a  number  of  rather 
interesting  statistics  as  to  the  prevalency  of  this  disease,  and  the 
time  and  money  loss  that  it  involves.  He  also  called  attention  to  the 
ease  with  which  this  disease  may  be  spread  and  the  difficulties  that 
beset  the  proper  diagnosis  and  the  successful  treatment  of  it,  even 
•in  the  hands  of  physicians  who  devote  all  of  their  time  to  its  study. 
Dr.  E.  E.  Montgomery,  in  opening  the  general  discussion,  con- 
fined his  remarks  to  the  consideration  of  "  the  infection  of  the  inno- 
cent and  the  suffering  and  misery  that  is  entailed."  In  his  intro- 
ductory remarks  he  expressed  the  opinion  that,  if  gonorrhea  could 
be  limited  to  the  vile  and  the  vicious,  it  might  be  considered  as 
being  a  beneficent  agent,  but,  unfortunately  this  disease  is  most 
prone  to  attack  the  innocent,  and  here,  being  ofttimes  unrecognized, 
because  unsuspected,  it  usually  causes  great  damage  before  it  is 
brought  under  control. 
Dr.  Montgomery  briefly  outlined  a  number  of  ways  in  which  inno- 
cent and  unsuspecting  persons  might  be  inoculated  with  this  really 
