Am.  Jour.  Pliarm. ) 
Jan  ,  1881.  j 
Edito7'ial. 
39 
the  business  of  pharmacy  with  the  practice  of  medicine— «  union  which 
always  results  unhappily,  and  is  not  to  be  approved.'^ 
Ag'ain  we  liear  our  reformers  proclaim  that  tlieri  "  we  will  club  together, 
purchase  drugs  with  our  own  money,  have  a  room  for  the  purpose,  and 
have  some  one  to  specially  compound  our  prescriptions."  A  most  excellent 
idea,  no  doubt,  but  as  impracticable  and  short-sighted  as  the  former.  They 
forget  that,  first  of  all,  the  laws  for  this  city  do  not  authorize  physicians  to 
practise  pharmacy  unless  he  be  a  graduate  or  licentiate  of  pharmacy ;  and 
even  were  tliey  to  delegate  this  to  a  proper  person  tliey  would  soon  find 
themselves  involved  in  a  commercial  speculation  that  would  cost  them 
dearly,  and  as  much  at  their  dispenser's  mercy  tlian  they  formerly  were  at 
that  of  their  druggist's.  Besides,  the  public  learning  of  their  enterprise 
would  soon  interpret  it  for  a  money  making  speculation,  shun  the  co-oper- 
ative pharmacy  and  perhaps  the  stockholding  doctors  as  well. 
But,  supposing  that  either  or  both  of  these  plans  were  perfectly  feasible, 
the  question  arises,  what  would  become  of  the  druggists,  would  they 
(piietly  submit  to  tliis  starving  out  process?  We  are  afraid  not,  for  with 
our  present  facilities  we  fear  that  very  soon  the  ranks  of  the  medical  pro- 
fession in  this  city  would  be  augmented  by  about  seven  hundred  new 
recruits,  and  not  despicable  ones  either,  for  once  legalized  and  on  an  equal 
basis  with  us,  witli  their  opportunities  of  coming  constantly  in  contact 
with  the  suffering  public  looking  for  aid  and  relief,  we  ave  inclined  to 
think  that  they  would  make  sad  havoc  with  many  of  our  young  medical 
friends. 
In  conclusion,  we  call  the  attention  of  the  readers  of  the  Bulletin'^ 
interested  in  this  subject  to  a  paper  read  at  the  International  Congress  in 
this  city,  in  1876,  entitled  *'  Relations  of  Pharmacy  to  Medicine,"  by  Ezra 
M.  Hunt,  and  published  in  its  Transactions,  page  1075,  which  off'ers  a  solu- 
tion of  the  question,  and  deserves  mature  tliotigbt  and  ample  deliberation 
V)efore  steps  are  taken  that  will  soon  be  regretted  and  abandoned. 
We  quote  from  it  the  following  passages,  as  having  a  direct  bearing  on 
the  subject : 
"The  first  step  in  remedying  this  evil  must  be  to  hold  pharmacy  to 
accountability  and  reliability  by  making  it  a  part  of  the  profession  of  medi- 
cine. It  must,  like  ophthalmology  and  gynaecology,  be  made  a  specialty,, 
only  because  it  may  not  be-  practicable  for  each  practitioner  to  attend  to 
every  department  of  medicine,  and  in  order  that,  by  giving  more  time  for 
study,  greater  accuracy  thereby  may  be  attained." 
Again:  "  If  a  physician  cannot  keep  a  modern  pharmacy,  as  certainly 
he  cannot  consistently  with  proper  professional  feelings,  I  do  not  quite  see 
how  he  can  suitably  patronize  one ;  it  would  be  well  if  it  were  practicable 
for  every  physician  to  refuse  to  send  prescriptions  to  be  compounded  by 
any  save  those  licensed  in  medicine,  who,  having  chosen  this  as  their  spe- 
cialty, were  bound  in  ethical  propriety  not  to  prescribe,  to  sell  and  com- 
pound only  in  recognized  pharmacy,  and  to  hold  themselves  in  the  same 
relative  position  as  a  part  of  our  profession,  as  do  others  who  pursue  a  par- 
ticular branch." 
And,  finally:  "Instead  of  leaving  the  pharmacist  outside,  let  us  invite 
him  within  the  boundaries  of  legitimate  practice,  and  let  him  become 
imbued  with  the  esprit  de  corps,  which  belongs  to  a  ^loble  profession.'' 
Combining  the  practice  of  medicine  and  j)harmacy  is  an  evil  which  is 
being  more  and  more  recognized  in  all  sections  where  it  still  exists.  This 
journal  has,  from  its  very  beginning,  been  an  earnest  advocate  of  the  com- 
plete separation  of  the  two  professions,  and  while  we  do  not  believe  that,  by 
virtue  of  his  education,  the  physician  is  proficient  in  piiarmacy,  we  have 
always  held  that  the  pharmacist,  through  his  education,  is  not  capable  to 
act  as  physician  ;  nor  do  we  regard  it  possible  that  persons  are  likely  to 
