Am.  Jour.  Pharm. ) 
August,  1908.  / 
American  Medical  Association. 
383 
NO  RECOMMENDATION. 
It  should  be  remembered  that  acceptance  of  these  articles  by  the 
Council  and  their  publication  in  the  New  and  Non-Official  Reme- 
dies, and  monthly  in  the  Journal  of  the  American  Medical  Associa- 
tion, does  not  carry  with  it  any  recommendation  ;  simply  that  they 
conform  to  the  rules  adopted  by  the  Council  to  govern  the  selection 
of  such  proprietary  articles  as  physicians  may  be  safe  in  using  and 
therefore  eligible  to  advertising  in  medical  journals. 
In  brief,  the  articles  must  be  true  to  the  composition  alleged  and 
no  unwarranted  therapeutic  claims  be  made  for  them.  The  Council 
would  not  assume,  even  were  it  practicable,  to  pass  judgment  on 
their  therapeutic  value  or  clinical  efficiency.  This  is  the  physician's 
prerogative  with  which  he  can  allow  no  interference. 
All  he  wants  to  know  is  that  the  maker  states  the  truth  concern- 
ing his  products. 
FORMER  EFFORTS. 
At  the  appearance  of  every  revised  edition  of  the  U.S.P.,  as  well 
as  the  N.F.,  there  have  been  more  or  less  efforts  directed  toward 
securing  physicians'  attention  to  these  works,  that  they  may  accept 
the  pharmaceutical  preparations  therein  contained  and  give  them 
preference  over  the  proprietary  articles.  These  efforts  have  been 
largely  futile  because  there  was  no  general  sentiment  among  the 
physicians  suggesting  its  desirability  and  no  awakening  to  the 
turpidity  of  the  proprietary  medicines. 
Now  it  is  different. 
With  the  entire  medical  pro  fession  aware  of  its  perilous  position, 
should  the  exploitation  by  the  proprietary  interests  be  permitted 
to  continue,  with  the  medical  societies  and  their  journals  alive  to 
the  issue,  with  the  recognition  by  their  authorities  that  the  official 
preparations  to  which  they  have  themselves  contributed,  are  equal 
if  not  superior  to  proprietary  articles,  there  is  an  entirely  different 
feeling,  and  here  is  the  opportunity  for  the  pharmacist. 
JOINT  MEETINGS,  ETC. 
The  effects  are  already  apparent.  In  the  larger  cities  where  the 
movement  has  been  longest  in  progress  there  is  already  a  marked 
falling  off  in  the  prescription  of  proprietaries  and  a  correspondi  ng 
