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EDITORIAL. 
duce  their  employers  to  agree  to  some  arrangement  by  which  their  stores 
eould  be  closed  on  Sunday,  except  at  certain  hours  necessary  for  the  supply  of 
the  sick.  After  several  meetings  at  the  Hall  of  the  College  of  Pharmacy,  it 
was  determined  t:>  draw  up  an  address  to  the  proprietors,  asking  their  atten- 
tion to  the  subject,  and  requesting  their  signatures  to  a  call  for  a  meeting  of 
apothecaries,  at  the  College  Hall,  to  consider  the  subject.  In  this  they  were 
successful;  the  subject  met  with  much  interest  from  a  number  of  phar- 
maceutists, and  at  an  adjourned  meeting  held  on  the  25th  of  July,  the  fol- 
lowing hours  for  opening  and  closing  their  stores  on  Sunday  were  agreed 
upon  by  those  present : 
In  the  morning,  open  until  9i  o'clock. 
In  the  afternoon,  open  at  1  and  close  at  3  three  o'clock. 
In  the  evening,  open  at  9  and  close  at  10  o'clock. 
It  was  also  agreed  that  the  arrangement  should  remain  in  force  for  three 
months,  commencing  after  the  first  week  in  August,  and  if  found  practicable 
to  be  continued.  Meanwhile  the  following  Address,  which  was  approved  by 
the  meeting,  was  ordered  to  be  extensively  circulated. 
Address  of  the  Pharmaceutists,  to  the  People  of  Philadelphia. 
The  undersigned  address  you  on  behalf  of  the  Pharmaceutists  of  Philadel- 
phia, convened  agreeably  to  public  notice  July  18th,  1860,  to  consider  and 
perfect  a  plan  for  the  relief  of  themselves  and  their  assistants,  from  unneces- 
sary labor  and  confinement  on  the  Sabbath. 
The  business  of  the  Pharmaceutist  involves  a  constant  confinement  to  the 
store,  required  by  no  other  pursuit ;  besides  the  ordinary  motives  of  compe- 
tition, we  are  under  a  supposed  necessity  to  provide  at  the  moment  for  every 
real  or  imagined  exigency  of  sickness,  so  that  the  dispensing  stores  in  this 
city,  are  open  on  an  average  from  sixteen  to  seventeen  hours  daily  throughout 
the  entire  year,  besides  being  supplied  with  sleeping  accommodations,  from 
which  the  proprietor  or  a  skilled  assistant  may  be  summoned  at  any  time  dur- 
ing the  hours  necessarily  appropriated  to  sleep. 
From  this  onerous  confinement  to  business,  there  has  heretofore  been  no 
cessation  on  the  day  set  apart  by  the  laws  of  the  land,  and  the  practice  of 
nearly  all  Christian  sects,  for  rest  and  religious  observance.  A  few  pharma- 
ceutists impelled  by  a  sense  of  duty,  have  refused  to  attend  to  all  calls  except 
those  of  obvious  necessity,  and  a  few  have  absented  themselves  during  the 
hours  of  public  worship,  but  the  common  practice  has  been  to  open  the  stores 
during  the  whole  day  and  evening,  thus  inviting  calls  of  every  description, 
and  effectually  blotting  out  the  Sabbath  from  the  week  of  those  compelled  to 
be  in  attendance. 
This  most  unreasonable  custom  has  become  almost  universal,  because  its 
alleged  necessity  has  not  been  questioned ;  recently,  however,  through  the 
general  awakening  of  discussion  among  pharmaceutists,  both  in  this  country 
and  Europe,  a  professional  spirit  has  grown  up  which  has  subjected  this  and 
many  other  abuses  to  a  thorough  scrutiny.  It  has  been  ascertained  that  the 
excessive  confinement  now  complained  of,  though  common  in  many  large 
cities,  is  not  found  necessary  in  smaller  towns,  where  a  few  hours  only  are 
allowed  on  the  sabbath  for  the  purchase  of  necessary  articles. 
Few  families  in  any  community  are  without  some  of  the  more  important 
medicines  adapted  to  cases  of  sudden  illness,  and  which  are  especially  liable  to 
be  needed  at  night,  while  none  in  the  cities  are  so  isolated  as  to  be  unable  to 
obtain  them  from  a  neighbor,  when  the  pharmaceutical  stores  are  closed. 
Under  the  earnest  conviction  that  it  is  a  duty  we  owe  to  ourselves  and 
assistants,  to  secure  to  the  fullest  extent  compatible  with  the  responsible 
