Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  ) 
September,  1910.  J 
Progress  in  Pharmacy. 
447 
of  medical  freedom.  When  such  people  realize  that  the  great  bulk 
of  the  regular  medical  profession  are  heart  and  soul  with  the 
broadest  possible  freedom  of  medical  thought,  teaching,  and  practice, 
and  awaken  to  the  unselfish,  self-sacrificing  work  of  the  men  who 
are  bending  every  energy  to  what  seems  to>  them  the  summum 
bonum  of  present  day  living — the  prevention  of  disease,  it  is  en- 
tirely probable  that  any  reason  for  the  '  League  for  Medical 
Freedom  '  will  cease  to  exist." 
The  rational  discussion  of  matters  relating  to  the  safeguarding 
of  the  public  health  and  the  prevention  of  diseases  has  been  alto- 
gether too  much  neglected  by  pharmacists  and  it  is  gratifying, 
therefore,  to  learn  that  Prof.  Joseph  P.  Remington  discussed  "  The 
role  of  pharmacy  in  preventive  medicine,"  at  one  of  the  sessions 
of  the  Section  on  Preventive  Medicine  and  Public  Health  of  the 
American  Medical  Association  (/.  Am.  M.  Ass.,  1910,  v.  55,  p.  557). 
Prof.  Remington  very  properly  asserts  that :  "  The  words  pre- 
ventive medicine  have  to  a  commercial  druggist,  a  significance 
which  he  has  yet  failed  to  grasp.  .  .  ." 
It  is  unfortunate,  however,  that  much  of  the  discussion  following 
is  from  a  point  of  view  that  is  practically  negligible  at  the  present 
time.  It  would  be  difficult  indeed  to  demonstrate  that  disease  can 
be  communicated  by  means  of  the  prescription  container,  even  grant- 
ing that  the  average  druggist  took  absolutely  no  precautionary 
measures  in  the  way  of  cleansing  or  destroying  such  containers. 
While  it  may  be  true  that  some  few  retail  druggists  are 
careless  and  not  too  cleanly,  the  fault  for  this  shortcoming  is  to 
be  placed  primarily  at  the  door  of  the  pharmaceutical  schools  which 
have  as  yet  failed  to  give  adequate  instruction  in  the  value  of 
cleanliness  and  hygiene  in  general. 
The  International  Encyclopaedia  of  Ethical  Non- 
Official  Pharmaceuticals. — An  editorial  in  the  Journal  of  the 
American  Medical  Association  (Aug.  6,  191  o,  p.  519)  calls  atten- 
tion to  an  evident  attempt  to  develop  the  commercial  possibilities 
of  a  book  along  the  lines  of  New  and  Non-official  Remedies,  pub- 
lished by  the  Council  on  Pharmacy  and  Chemistry.  As  an  illustra- 
tion of  present-day  enterprise  the  article  is  well  worth  reading, 
though  the  evidence,  as  presented,  is  not  creditable  to  the  physicians 
and  pharmacists  involved. 
Pharmaceutical  Manufacturers  and  the  Great  American 
Fraud. — Medical  practitioners  are  beginning  to  take  a  greater  in- 
