PHARMACY  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 
401 
I  have  had  occasion  to  notice,  since  my  return  to  Germany,  that 
many  changes  have  taken  place  in  the  management  of  pharma- 
cies. Gradually  there  appear  to  be  kept,  particularly  in  larger 
cities,  a  number  of  retail  articles,  as  foreign  patent  medicines 
and  toilet  preparations.  They  are  called  for,  their  sale  is 
quickly  made,  and  does  not  disturb  the  legitimate  business  much. 
Just  so,  but  in  a  more  extended  measure,  the  numerous  retail 
drug-stores  in  the  United  States  find  their  living;  and  it  depends 
upon  the  qualification,  the  conscientiousness  and  the  manage- 
ment of  their  owners,  whether  they  obtain  a  reputation  as 
thorough  apothecaries,  as  venders  of  drugs,  or  as  simple 
dealers  in  patent  medicines,  among  the  public  and  physicians, 
each  class  of  which  select  their  pharmacies  with  the  strictest 
scrutiny. 
In  the  United  States,  the  free  competition  takes  the  place  of 
inspection  by  authority.  This  is  admitted  by  all  the  German 
pharmaceutists  there ;  for  the  public  exercises  a  never-relaxing 
control,  which  extends  even  to  the  most  indifi'erent  articles.  In 
order  to  explain  this,  I  find  it  necessary  to  enter  more  into  that 
subject.  In  the  first  place,  the  public  refuses  to  take  any  article 
without  being  properly  labelled,  with  the  name  of  the  firm  and 
the  name  of  the  drug  upon  it.  A  druggist  who  sells  an  inferior 
quality  of  rhubarb,  stale  camomile,  a  rancid  salve,  or  a  spoiled, 
fermenting  syrup,  will  be  known  very  quickly,  and  the  public 
will  desert  him,  because  it  will  find  another  drug-store,  not  far 
distant,  where  it  can  get  these  articles  more  carefully  kept,  or  in 
a  fresher  state. 
If  he  attempts,  in  putting  up  prescriptions  where  dear  pre- 
parations are  ordered,  for  the  sake  of  gain,  or  in  order  to  sell 
cheaper  than  his  competitors,  to  commit  fraud  by  not  dispensing 
the  prescribed  quantity,  the  practising  physician  will  imme- 
diately become  suspicious  by  being  disappointed  in  the  expected 
effect  on  his  patient,  and  the  prescription  will  be  put  up  for  the 
future  in  a  more  reliable  establishment.  All  this  the  apothecary 
in  the  United  States  is  well  aware  of ;  and,  for  this  reason, 
every  one,  for  the  sake  of  competition,  makes  his  utmost  effort 
to  attend  to  his  business  promptly  and  conscientiously,  and  tO' 
furnish  the  best  of  quality  at  most  possible  moderate  rates. 
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