PHARMACEUTICAL  NOTES  OF  TRAVEL.  99 
preparations  have  been  in  use  in  the  metropolis,  on  the  continent 
of  Europe  or  in  America,  for  a  long  time  before  they  have  been 
generally  known  to,  or  adopted  by  the  majority  of  practitioners." 
Even  natural  productions  of  value,  it  is  said,  "  have  never  be- 
come available  in  practice,  because  no  person  has  introduced 
them  into  commerce."  The  colleges,  it  is  also  urged,  «  only 
adopt  into  the  Pharmacopoeias  remedies  having  a  reputation  al- 
ready established,  and,  as  a  matter  of  course,  these  publications 
are  always  in  arrear  of  the  actual  state  of  the  art  ;"  hence 
the  establishment  of  this  Company,  as  a  "  professional  body," 
for  the  systematic  advancement  of  therapeutics.  I  quote  one  of 
the  arguments  used  in  this  preface,  which  is  so  novel  that  it 
may  be  interesting  to  the  readers  of  this  essay.  "  The  imper- 
fection and  uncertainty  which  attaches  to  medicine,  has  had  one 
cause  very  readily  avoided.  The  preparation  of  medicine  has 
been  entrusted  to  a  class  of  persons  who,  whatever  may  be  their 
merits  in  other  respects,  make  no  pretensions  to  understand  the 
treatment  of  disease,  and  who  according  to  unquestionable  testi- 
mony, either  wilfully  or  negligently  sell  or  employ  in  the  pre- 
paration of  prescriptions,  spurious  or  adulterated  drugs."  It 
will  be  new  to  most  pharmaceutists  that  a  knowledge  of  the 
treatment  of  disease  is  requisite  to  an  understanding  of  the 
preparation  of  medicines ;  and  as  to  employing  adulterated 
medicines  in  compounding  prescriptions,  both  common  sense  and 
experience  go  to  prove  that  a  class  who  make  drugs  and  pre- 
parations their  chief  or  exclusive  study,  would  be  more  compe- 
tent to  guard  against  this  evil  than  those  who  add  the  cares  of 
"  general  practitioners  "  to  the  legitimate  practice  of  pharmacy. 
This  "General  Apothecaries'  Company"  must  not  be  confound- 
ed with  the  Society  of  Apothecaries  established  in  1617,  and 
during  two  centuries  known  as  the  proprietors  of  Apothecaries' 
Hall,  in  London,  to  which  metropolis  their  charter  confines 
them.  The  Company  now  alluded  to  as  owning  several  depots 
in  the  principal  towns  of  the  United  Kingdom,  appears  to  be 
confined  in  its  operations  to  manufacturing  and  trading,  and 
the  Record  of  Pharmacy  and  Therapeutics  issued  from  its  cen- 
tral establishment  in  London,  is  chiefly  an  advertising  medium 
for  their  preparations,  which  are,  of  course,  recommended  as  of 
the  best  quality,  and  wholly  free  from  adulteration.    The  pre- 
