ON MEDICINE AND PHARMACY IN TURKEY. 
231 
mer months, pervades all the towns in the east. In addition, how- 
ever, there are on stands or on the counter, large jars, containing 
colored liquors of all tints, vessels in which serpents and other 
reptiles are preserved, and near the shop, jars of oil, retorts, Wolfs 
bottles, and other apparatus exposed to public view. Near the 
windows are placed large glass cylinders filled with blue vitriol, 
cut sarsaparilla, symlax, cinchona bark, crystals of tartaric acid, 
vases and stands on which are small caustic balls strung together 
like beads, bougies, syringes, &c. 
All the chemical products are obtained from the great towns of 
Europe, and the compounds prepared are chiefly plasters and the 
most ordinary ointments. As neither a Pharmacopceia nor price lists 
exist in Turkey, each Pharmacien prepares and sells his medicines 
as he thinks fit, and according to the greater or less percentage 
which he gives to the doctor who sends him prescriptions. This 
percentage ranges from twenty to fifty. From this, some idea may 
be formed of the precarious position of a Pharmacien who depends 
upon the small profit he derives from retail business, or the prepa- 
ration of a few prescriptions which are brought to him either by 
mistake, or by the particular favor of the patients. This abuse 
exists chiefly in Smyrna. There the Pharmacien would not ven- 
ture to prepare any prescriptions but those emanating from the 
physician attached to his establishment, without exposing himself 
to great annoyance. 
With regard to the personal qualifications of the Pharmacien, 
he is almost entirely destitute of scientific education. This glaring 
defect arises from the indifference of the Government, which does 
not oblige the Pharmacien to obtain a diploma as an evidence of 
his qualification. Hence it is a common occurrence, that the as- 
sistants or employees of the physician finish by establishing them- 
selves as Pharmaciens. Among the numerous Pharmaciens at 
Constantinople, scarcely ten or twelve can be found who have 
gone through any scientific study in a university. 
Many years ago, the Government established at Constantinople 
a school of medicine, where young Turks received instruction from 
distinguished Physicians educated in France, Italy or Germany. 
However, up to the present time, the results of this institution are 
no subject for congratulation, notwithstanding the great expense 
of its maintenance. 
