476 
EDITORIAL. 
not  only  to  New  York,  but  to  this  city  and  the  whole  country,  and  equally 
to  the  medical  profession  as  to  the  pharmaceutical.  It  is  to  the  spirit  mani- 
fested by  the  writer  that  we  object.  He  speaks  as  though  medical  men 
were  exempt  from  liability  to  accidents,  or  were  generally  so  well  educated 
as  to  rarely  make  mistakes.  Without  forgetting  that  "  two  wrongs  don't  make 
a  right,"  we  may  state  that  in  an  experience  of  more  than  twenty  years 
in  the  practice  of  extemporaneous  pharmacy,  serving  a  large  range  of  prac- 
titioners, it  has  fallen  to  our  lotto  detect  hundreds  of  errors  in  the  prescrip- 
tions of  all  grades  of  physicians,  made  by  the  different  causes  of  inadver- 
tence, forgetfulness,  ignorance  and  carelessness,  and  with  a  few  rare  excep- 
tions our  medical  friends  have  acknowledged  it  as  a  kindness.  We  hold  it 
to  be  the  duty  of  the  apothecary  to  invariably  exercise  his  judgment  in 
regard  to  the  prescriptions  brought  to  him ;  not  whether  the  dose  is  proper 
for  the  disease,  or  even  to  make  any  enquiry  about  the  case,  but  to  satisfy 
himself  that  the  substances  prescribed  are  such  as  the  doctor  intended,  and 
the  dose  not  a  poisonous  one;  that  he  may  in  this  way  detect  errors  and  save 
the  patient,  as  well  as  the  reputation  of  the  physician.  He  should  not  excite 
suspicion  in  the  messenger  that  something  is  wrong,  or  interfere  in  any  way 
hurtful  to  the  physician,  but  quietly  to  refer  the  prescription  to  him  for  his 
revision,  whilst  the  messenger  is  desired  to  return  and  the  medicine  will  be 
sent  when  ready.  In  Germany,  the  best  regulated  country  as  regards  phar- 
macy, it  is  the  apothecary's  duty  to  thus  refer  the  prescription,  and  then 
if  it  is  reordered  to  be  put  up,  he  is  exonerated  from  all  blame. 
As  regards  the  last  sentence  of  the  writer,  it  may  be  well  to  say,  that  the 
practice  of  pharmacy  by  medical  men  in  cities  where  qualified  apothecaries 
exist,  is  a  fruitful  source  of  the  very  difficulty  he  complains  of.  In  this  city 
there  are  about  forty  of  such  stores,  some  of  which  are  left  in  the  hands  of 
boys  and  ill-qualified  assistants  during  the  absence  of  their  proprietors  on 
medical  duty.  Besides,  from  motives  of  competition,  the  proprietors  of 
neighboring  stores,  who  do  not  take  a  stand  against  indiscriminate  counter- 
practice,  are  induced  to  doctor  their  customers  gratis  to  get  custom.  If  the 
unrecorded  annals  of  the  physician's  office  in  times  long  past,  when  the 
practical  duties  fell  chiefly  to  the  office  student,  could  be  explored,  some 
curious  and  tragical  details  would  be  brought  to  light ;  and  in  the  absence 
of  the  check  arising  from  the  distinct  functions  of  two  professions,  it  is  alto- 
gether probable  that  not  a  few  fatal  results  of  carelessness  or  ignorance 
have  quietly  passed  to  the  account  of  the  virulence  of  disease,  uncommented 
and  unknown.  Country  practitioners  will  probably  always  have  to  continue 
the  troublesome  practice  of  supplying  their  patients  with  medicines — cir- 
*  cumstances  render  it  necessary — but  it  is  greatly  to  be  hoped  that  in  cities 
and  towns  a  broad  line  of  demarcation  should  be  drawn  between  pharmacy 
and  medicine  as  one  of  the  best  means  of  raising  the  standing  of  the  prac- 
titioners of  both. 
New  York  Journal  of  Pharmacy. — For  some  reason  unknown,  our 
pharmaceutical  cotemporary  has  not  been  received  since  March  or  April 
