116 
ON  AMERICAN  PHARMACY. 
ry  with  the  public  health,  separates  it  from  exclusively  mercan- 
tile trades,  and  requires  of  its  votaries  a  more  accurate  acquain- 
tance with  exact  science  and  a  higher  tone  of  professional  bear- 
ing than  pertains  to  the  mere  business  man.  We  may  thus  sum 
up  these  peculiar  duties. 
1st.  To  secure  to  the  public  a  drug  market,  comprising  every 
known  substanee  used  in  the  cure  of  disease,  whether  of  vegeta- 
ble, animal,  or  mineral  production,  of  foreign  or  domestic  ori- 
gin, each  containing  as  perfectly  preserved  as  possible  its  natu- 
ral curative  principles,  and  fully  realizing  the  promise  of  nature 
in  its  bestowment  on  man. 
2nd.  To  modify  by  artificial  processes,  to  prepare  and  to  com- 
bine together  these  drugs,  so  as  to  adapt  them  to  use  in  the 
treatment  of  disease  whether  under  the  direction  of  the  physician 
or  otherwise. 
3rd.  To  exert  the  influence  pertaining  to  his  position,  inter, 
mediate  between  the  physician  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  people 
on  the  other,  so  as  to  strengthen  public  confidence  in  the  science 
of  medicine,  and  to  unveil  the  pretensions  of  quackery.  It  is 
peculiarly  his  place  to  impart  a  correct  knowledge  of  the  nature 
and  the  position  of  medicines,  and  the  ill  effects  of  their  injudi- 
cious use,  and  also  to  guard  against  the  too  free  diffusion  of 
poisons. 
4th.  The  science  of  pharmacy  being  specially  entrusted  to  the 
keeping  of  druggists,  it  is  the  duty  of  each  member  of  the  pro- 
fession to  impart  the  fruits  of  his  observation  and  experience  to 
his  fellow  laborers  in  the  same  vocation.  It  is  by  the  fulfilment 
of  this  duty  that  pharmacy  has  grown  from  an  obscure  and  em- 
pyrical  art  to  its  present  improved  position  among  the  practical 
sciences,  and  may  be  greatly  advanced  toward  a  higher  and  more 
perfect  art. 
5th.  Connected  with  the  foregoing  is  the  duty  we  owe  to  those 
who  are  hereafter  to  assume  the  duties  and  responsibilities  of  the 
profession.  To  discountenance  a  superficial,  scientific  and  prac- 
tical education,  and  to  impart  to  those  placed  under  our  care  the 
requisite  knowledge  and  skill ;  to  imbue  them  with  a  high  appre- 
ciation of  the  importance  and  responsibility  of  their  calling,  and 
of.  its  connection  with  the  physical  sciences,  and  to  suppress  every  * 
tendency  to  professional  quackery,  are  duties  which  the  present 
