Am.  Jour.  Pharm, "( 
Feb.,  1881.  / 
EditoinaL 
93 
the  druggists  much  that  should  go  on  the  doctors'  books.  If  the  patients 
have  not  this  confidence,  it  is  liard  on  the  doctor;  but  we  don't  see  how 
lecturing  druggists  will  help  it.  If,  when  they  have  a  headache  or  are 
bilious,  they  take  the  bottle,  whose  contents  did  them  good  before,  back  to 
be  refilled,  either  their  opinion  is  correct  and,  the  information  as  to  the 
remedy  having  passed  to  a  third  party,  we  don't  see  how  they  can  be 
expected  to  pay  for  it  again  ;  or  their  opinion  is  false,  and  the  result— alas! 
that  it  must  be  put  so— will  conduce  to  the  doctor's  pecuniary  advantage 
soon  enough. 
What  is  more,  we  hope  this  discussion  will  not  be  pushed  to  such  a  point 
as  shall  bring  it  to  the  ears  of  the  laity ;  for  this  would  probably  bring 
about  an  i&^sue  little  flattering  to  our  self-respect  and  little  remunerative  to- 
our  purses. 
The  best  protection  a  doctor  has  against  any  attempt  of  liis  patients  to  gO' 
round  him  and  evade  his  charges,  is  that  which  is  furnished  by  his  char- 
acter and  skill  and  the  personal  relations  of  friendship  and  confidence 
which  exist  between  him  and  them.  If  this  is  sufficient  he  will  probably 
have  no  cause  to  complain,  and  if  it  is  not  it  might  be  well  for  him  to  see 
if  the  fault  is  not  with  himself,  instead  of  trying  to  get  by  compulsion 
Avhat  he  has  not  been  able  to  acquire  by  persuasion. 
The  "Atlantic  Medical  and  Surgical  Journal,"  November,  1880,  speaks 
of  the  same  topic  as  follows  : 
We  cannot,  therefore,  see  how  physicians  can,  with  proi^riety,  hold  drug- 
gists to  a  strict  accountability  for  the  refilling  of  prescriptions,  though  the 
patient  should  have  no  right  to  use  them  the  second  time.  As  above  stated, 
we  think  the  quarrel  should  be  between  patient  and  physician,  if  a  quarrel 
must  be  had.  We  must  not  be  understood  as  holding  that  refilling  pre- 
scriptions without  the  physician's  directions  is  proper,  beneficial  or  safe  to 
the  patient.  No  ;  we  think  it  is  a  wrong  and  unsafe  practice,  but  the  dam- 
age accrues  to  the  patient  more  than  to  the  jDhysician. 
And,  on  this  and  kindred  subjects,  the  "  Buffalo  Medical  and  Surgical 
Journal,  December,  1880,  says: 
From  the  experience  of  a  good  many  years  we  are  of  the  opinion  that 
there  are  about  the  same  proportion  of  honorable  and  upright  men  in  the 
two  professions.  The  better  class  of  pharmacists  are  as  active  and  earnest  in 
their  efforts  to  rectify  abuses,  and  to  obtain  adequate  laws  for  the  protection 
of  themselves  and  tlie  public,  as  are  the  doctors  ;  but  instead  of  recogniz- 
ing this  effort,  many  medical  men  look  only  at  the  injustice  done  them, 
and  as  a  remedy  proj)ose  to  dispense  with  the  disj^ensers  
After  all,  are  these  good  fellows  so  entirely  at  our  mercy?  True,  they 
are  largely  dependent  ujwn  our  goodwill  and  patronage  ;  but  if  we  with- 
draw that,  and  turn  druggists  ourselves,  can  they  not  almost  as  easily  turn 
doctors,  and  if  the  opprobrium  w^hich  attaches  iiself,  at  least  in  the  cities^ 
to  practicing  physicians  who  are  also  druggists,  is  removed,  will  not  the 
accomplished  pharmacist  who  graduates  in  medicine  have  a  decided  advan- 
tage over  the  younger  medical  men  in  the  race  for  professional  success  ? 
During  the  last  few  years  pharmacy  has  assumed  a  position  which  fairly 
entitles  it  to  rank  as  a  profession,  and  the  best  interests  of  the  medical  pro- 
fession are  to  be  advanced,  not  by  ignoring  and  decrying  the  value  of  phar-- 
macy  to  medicine,  but  by  encouraging  the  growth  of  a  professional  spirit 
among  the  pharmacists,  and  by  aiding  them  in  their  efforts  to  rectify  abuses 
by  legislative  enactment.  Meanwhile  the  physician  must  protect  himself 
and  his  patients  by  exercising  a  strict  oversight  over  the  preparation  of  his 
prescriptions,  allowing  them  to  be  dispensed  only  by  pharmacists  whom 
he  knows  to  be  competent  and  reliable;  by  exposing  and  absolutely  refus- 
ing to  allow  his  prescriptions  to  be  filled  by  any  druggist  who  has  been 
detected  in  substituting ^  or  who  is  known  to  be  guilty  of  the  minor  offences 
of  counter-prescribing,  etc.;  by  warning  his  patients  of  the  dangers  they 
