38 
EditoriaL 
j  Am.  Jour.  Pharm^ 
I      Jan.,  1881. 
selves  part  of  the  physician's  work  in  prescribing  and  attending  to  persons 
afflicted  with  disease,  to  compound  and  rejoeat  prescriptions  contrary  to 
tlie  wisli  and  order  of  tlie  pliysician,  to  antagonize  often  by  substitution 
and  sopliistication  tlie  pliysician 's  best  intentions  for  his  i)atients,  and  by 
exorbitant  charges  for  medicines  to  often  prevent  patients  from  employing 
private  medical  aid,  driving  them  thus  into  charitable  institutions,  or  the 
arms  of  practitioners  of  rival  scliools,  thereby  endangering  the  health  of 
the  community  and  exerting  a  detrimental  influence  against  the  medical 
practitioners,  their  natural  allies,  are  the  grave  charges  which  are  brought 
against  the  members  of  the  pharmaceutical  profession,  and  which  in  many 
instances,  no  doubt,  are  well  founded. 
The  cause  of  all  this  trouble  must  be  looked  for  in  the  overcrowding  of 
both  professions.  Like  all  abuses  in  social  relations,  by  their  going  too  far- 
they  correct  themselves,  we  think  that  this  as  well  as  others  will  regulate 
itself  without  active  interference  in  its  machinery.  Just  as  soon  as  j)eople 
will  find  out  that  ours  is  not  "  such  a  nice,  easy  business,"  that  the  drug- 
gist is  not  coining  the  money  the  public  imagines,  despite  of  his  immense 
profits,  that  with  the  same  amount  of  exertion  they  could  do  better  in 
some  of  the  other  vocations  of  life,  the  ranks  of  the  aspirants  for  medical 
honors  will  be  thinned  out,  and  the  corner  drug  stores  will  be  turned  into- 
grocery,  di-y  goods  or  stationery  establishments. 
But  as  tliis  process  is  necessarily  a  slow  one,  and  our  young  practitioners 
would  like  to  experience  the  benefit  of  these  reforms,  the  propositions  to 
remedy  the  evil  have  been  varied  and  many. 
We  would  state  here  that  in  Philadelphia,  the  principal  centre  of  phar- 
maceutical education  in  this  country,  we  have  in  the  legitimate  and  j^rom- 
inent  members  of  the  pharmaceutical  profession  less  of  the  above  abuses  to 
contend  with  than  in  other  cities,  but  still  the  clamor  for  reform  even  here 
is  heard,  and  no  doubt  many  will  be  the  plans  for  relief. 
We  hear  of  some  advising  "  to  dispense  our  own  medicines,"  to,  homceo- 
pathist-like,  travel  with  satchel  and  deal  out  remedies  at  the  bedside.  That 
they  will  admit  l)y  this  that  our  method  is  a  failure,  and  that  we  must  fol- 
low homoeopathy  to  be  saved,  is  the  natural  inference  therefrom.  What 
impressions  they  are  apt  to  create  by  doing  so  is  well  exi:)ressed  in  one  of 
our  recent  exchanges,  which  goes  on  thus :  "  Those  j^ractitioners  in  larger 
towns,  who  will  insist  on  dispensing  their  own  remedies  in  order  to 
increase  their  revenues,  by  forcing  people  to  come  again,  must  not  forget 
that  they  are  struggling  against  the  tide  of  progress,  and  they  will  prob- 
ably learn,  to  their  dismay,  sooner  or  later,  that  they  cannot  turn  back  its 
flow,  while  they  themselves  will  be  rated  with  the  Indian  doctors,  water 
doctors,  root  and  herb  doctors,  and  all  that  ilk." 
That  hundreds  of  years  ago  the  physician  already  disi)ensed  his  own 
medicines,  that  it  was  then  deemed  necessary  to  separate  the  branch  of" 
Pharmacy  from  Medicine  proper,  in  order  to  bring  it  up  to  its  full  develop- 
ment, but  they  seem  to  overlook  the  fact  that,  if  the  busy  practitioner- 
w^ould  have  thus  continued,  we  would  i:»robably  not  have  been  l)lessed  with 
the  discovery  of  morphia,  quinia,  etc.,  and  such  men  as  Sclieele,  laebig  and 
others,  who  were  but  allies  of  our  profession,  would  not  have  advanced 
our  science  and  the  general  welfare  with  giant  strides  far  beyond  all  expec- 
tations. 
The  study  of  materia  niedica  and  the  complexus  of  chemical  and  phar- 
maceutical knowledge  necessary  for  the  practice  of  pharmacy  would  not 
alone  retard  medical  progress,  but  would  be  at  best  imperfectly  accom- 
plished by  one  whose  mind  is  so  largely  taken  up  by  his  j^roper  profes- 
sional studies.  To  quote  the  words  of  our  distinguished  Professor  of  Ma- 
teria Medica  and  Therapeutics,  Dr.  Roberts  Bartholow,  in  his  introductory 
lecture  at  the  Jefferson  College  :  "  The  best  students  who  make  the  attempt 
to  master  the  details  of  materia  medica,  acquire  but  a  vague  notion  of  it, 
and  drop  the  study  as  soon  as  possible,  except  those  who  expect  to  combine- 
