382 
EDITORIAL. 
they  generally  observe  a  proper  etiquette  towards  their  brethren  of  Phar- 
macy.   Let  us  examine  our  mutual  relation  for  a  few  moments. 
Apothecaries  want  to  sell  quack  medicines.  Doctors  say  it  is  a  breach  of 
fidelity,  and  an  injury  to  society.  Early  in  the  history  of  medicine  in  this 
country,  the  Doctor's  shop  was  the  great  central  point,  where  medicine  was 
prescribed,  and  procured.  It  was  not  the  fashion  then,  to  write  prescrip- 
tions, but  to  prepare  the  medicine,  and  administer  it  to  the  patient ;  but  as 
the  sun  broke  out  from  its  early  dawn,  and  began  to  raise  higher  and  higher, 
shedding  light  upon  the  advancing  world  of  mind,  the  doctor  began  to  think 
that  there  were  two  reasons  why  he  should  confer  upon  others  the  office 
of  preparing  medicine,  and  the  advantages  resulting  from  it.  Chemistry 
whispered  to  him,  in  his  musings,  that  she  had  been  silently  busy  in  the 
bowels  of  the  earth,  and  in  the  waters  of  the  great  deep,  and  had  discovered 
some  wonderful  things.  He  gave  his  assent,  and  bid  her  bring  them  out. 
She  had  a  strong  brother, — Pharmacy  by  name, — who  came  to  his  other  ear, 
and  whispered  strange  and  very  doubtful  truths,  about  extracts,  confections, 
and  various  novelties,  before  untold,  and  unknown.  To  this,  Old  Physic 
gave  his  nod  of  assent,  '  evacuated  the  principalities '  demanded  of  him, 
in  a  far  more  amiable  mood  than. is  exhibited  by  the  Czar  of  Russia,  and 
yielded  the  territory  to  the  young  conqueror  quietly,  both  agreeing  to  aid 
each  other,  in  the  great  work  of  healing,  [n  good  faith,  both  go  on.  Year 
rolls  up  against  year )  and  as  the  steep  of  time  becomes  more  and  more  rug- 
ged, they  yet  hold  together,  and  in  mature,  vigorous  manhood,  are  accom- 
plishing more — far  more,  than  they  could  have  anticipated,  when  the  inter' 
veiling  quack,  without  a  crown  of  royalty  to  deck  his  brow,  or  a  star  of  re- 
publicanism to  enlighten  his  path,  but  with  the  iron  step  of  a  haughty  usur- 
per, comes  in  to  sever  the  bond  that  had  united  the  old  man,  with  his 
adopted  child.  Now,  what  is  the  issue.  The  child,  fired  with  the  spirit  of 
1  Young  America  '—instead  of  holding  on  in  good  faith,  to  good  old  custom, 
attaches  himself  to  the  train  of  the  usurper,  and  begins  to  shout  with  the 
multitude  that  follow  on  in  his  dusty  train.  Quack  medicines  must  be  sold, 
and  I  will  sell  them.  They  must  be  sold,  because  they  will  be  bought,  and 
I  will  have  the  buyers.  This  is  the  logic— it  is  the  logic  of  the  day — and 
young  Pharmacy  dresses  himself  up  in  gold  and  glitter,  shows  himself  at 
the  corners  of  the  streets,  in  significant  characters,  his  pockets,  'drawers' 
and  all,  stored  with  the  spoils  of  the  aggressor,  and'  offers  them  to  the  pass- 
ing crowd. 
He  has  left  his  first  estate.  He  has  become  a  caterer  to  a  morbid  moral 
taste, — a  taste  for  the  unreal.  He  must  live, — this  is  the  reason.  He  is  not 
the  author  of  the  morbid  desire  for  quackery.  But,  to  accommodate  the 
public,  he  will  supply  the  demand  created  by  it,  as  the  jeweller  supplies  use- 
less trifles,  and  trinkets,  which  are  equally  the  creatures  of  an  idle  and  cor- 
rupt taste.  But  where  is  Old  Physic  now  \  He  is  still  in  the  line  of  his  duty. 
He  has  kept  to  his  contract.  He  does  not  sell  even  the  medicine  he  has 
prescribed.  Not  because  he  cannot,  but  because  he  has  said,  bona  fide,  he 
would  not.  He  sends  his  prescription  to  the  apothecary,  who  furnishes  the 
medicine  u  carefully  compounded,"  and  neatly  put  up',  for  a  consideration. 
All  right.  Is  there  no  reciprocal  consideration,  due  the  physician  under 
these  circumstances?  Young  Pharmacy  opines  not,  if  its  return  is  in  any 
way  to  interfere  with  money  getting,  not  bearing  in  mind,  that  the  physi- 
cian has  forfeited  all  claim  to  this  end,  by  refusing  to  dispense  the  medicine 
himself.  Pharmacy  is  the  child  of  Physic.  It  is  so  in  a  two-fold  sense. 
First  by  age,  and  second,  by  patronage.  The  business  of  prescribing  be- 
longs to  the  Parent,  that  of  compounding,  to  the  child. 
A  physician  is  in  attendance  upon  a  patient.    He  does  not  recover  as  rap- 
