500  American  Pharmaceutical  Association.  {^ptembe^tS!1' 
popular  among  students  of  pharmacy.    The  paper  was  received  and  referred  to 
the  Publication  Committee. 
The  next  paper  was  entitled 
SHALL  PHARMACISTS  PRESCRIBE  OVER  THE  COUNTER  ? 
By  F.  F.  Stewart. 
He  "  advocated  that  the  druggist  shall  be  educated  in  medicine  and  taught 
to  prescribe  intelligently  over  the  counter  in  minor  ailments,  for  which  the 
public  now  consult  the  apothecary,  not  charging  for  his  advice,  but  receiving 
his  pay  in  the  medicines  he  has  for  sale  ;  this  he  will  be  obliged  to  do  if  the 
times  demand  it,  and  this  is  virtually  what  he  is  doing  every  time  he  recom- 
mends a  medicinal  preparation  of  any  kind  to  his  customers.  " 
Following  this  came  a  paper  entitled 
A  DISTINGUISHED  PHYSICIAN-PHARMACIST— HIS  GREAT  DISCOV- 
ERY, ETHER-ANESTHESIA. 
By  Joseph  Jacobs. 
He  concluded  b}'  saying  :  "  Whatever  credit  may  be  due  Jackson  and  Morton 
and  Wells  for  their  researches  and  their  use  of  anaesthetics,  and  whatever  honor 
may  attach  to  the  eminent  surgeons  of  the  Massachusetts  General  Hospital  for 
publishing  the  facts  at  home  and  abroad,  the  real  glory  of  the  first  discovery 
and  proof  of  the  efficacy  of  ether  for  the  prevention  of  pain  in  surgery  must 
be  finally  awarded  to  Crawford  W.  Long,  the  eminent  Georgian  and  lamented 
physician-pharmacist. ' ' 
The  paper  was  received  and  a  special  vote  of  thanks  was  extended  to  the 
author.  It  was  also  moved  that  the  Association  be  requested  to  have  500  copies 
of  the  paper  printed,  and  that  a  copy,  properly  inscribed,  be  sent  to  each  of 
the  domestic  and  thereafter  to  foreign  medical  journals  by  the  General  Secre- 
tary, in  order  to  give  it  wide  distribution.  This  request  was  subsequently 
granted . 
A  paper  entitled 
IS  IT  ETHICAL  FOR  MEDICAL  MEN  TO  PATENT  MEDICAL 
INVENTIONS  ? 
By  F.  F.  Stewart, 
was  then  read  by  title. 
The  Committee  on  the  Revision  of  Pharmacy  Laws  then  reported.  Prof. 
Oldberg  moved  that  the  report  be  referred  to  a  sub-committee,  to  be  appointed 
by  the  incoming  Chairman  of  the  Section,  and  whose  duty  it  should  be  to  con- 
tinue the  work  during  the  coming  year.    It  was  so  ordered. 
The  attention  of  the  Association  was  then  called  in  a  note  on  the 
REAL  RELATIONS  OF  THE  PHARMACIST  TO  THE  PHARMACY  LAW. 
By  J.  H.  Beal, 
to  the  fact  that  the  required  registration  of  poisons  and  keeping  of  qualified 
clerks  are  not  legal  persecutions,  as  many  pharmacists  seem  to  think,  but  are 
really  in  the  first  instance  a  legal  protection,  and  in  the  second  instance  to  the 
best  interest  of  the  pharmacist,  because  it  makes  the  public  recognize  and 
appreciate  the  responsibility  of  his  occupation.  Some  business  remaining  over 
from  the  Scientific  Section  was  then  allowed  to  be  brought  up,  and  Mr.  Alpers, 
of  New  York  City,  explained  in  detail  the  system  of  filing  and  checking  of 
prescriptions  which  he  uses.    It  was  regarded  by  many  as  the  best  system  ever 
