PATENTS  IN  THEIR  RELATION  TO  PHARMACY. 
143 
motives  which  pertain  to  ordinary  business,  and  lead  us  into 
affiliation  with  the  liberal  professions.  Competition,  which  is  the 
great  moving  spring  of  business,  is  partially  shut  out  of  the  pro- 
fession of  medicine ;  physicians  professedly  ignore  it  entirely, 
yet  we  all  know  that  it  operates  practically  with  more  or  less 
force  upon  them,  and  we  see  its  effects  in  our  daily  intercouse 
with  the  public,  however,  they  may  seek  to  conceal  it  from  their 
professional  brethren. 
With  us,  however,  there  is  no  concealment  of  competition.  We 
are  all  trying  for  business  ;  competing  openly,  and  I  hope  for  the 
most  part  honorably,  with  our  neighbors,  and  it  need  not  affect 
our  friendly  relations,  though  it  does  somewhat  modify  our  course 
in  regard  to  the  subject  we  are  discussing,  To  us  a  new  inven- 
tion inevitably  presents  itself  in  a  business  aspect,  while  to  the 
true  physician  its  humanitarian  bearings  are  most  prominent,  and 
this,  it  seems  to  me,  puts  us  in  different  positions  in  regard  to 
the  question  of  patents. 
Perhaps  I  here  do  injustice  to  our  profession,  which  presents 
many  conspicuous  instances  of  the  most  liberal  and  professional 
spirit ;  its  Colleges,  its  journals,  and  this  Association,  as  far  as 
they  go,  are  palpable  testimonials  to  its  comparative  freedom 
from  niggardly  motives,  from  the  hoarding  of  ideas  and  experi- 
ences which  from  their  very  nature  ought  to  belong  to  the  common 
stock  ;  still  I  rely  upon  the  discernment  of  my  hearers  to  recog- 
nize the  difference  to  which  I  refer  as  inherent  in  the  nature  of 
the  two  pursuits^ — the  one  strictly  a  liberal  profession, — the 
other  a  combined  profession  and  trade.  It  is  true,  we  do  not 
sanction  concealment  in  regard  to  the  composition  of  medicines 
we  may  originate,  but  we  do  not  compel  a  disclosure  of  all  the 
results  of  our  experience  in  its  preparation.  We  do  not  conceal 
the  knowledge  we  possess  of  the  best  means  of  judging  of  the 
quality  of  drugs,  but  we  do  not  necessarily  tell  our  competitors 
where  best  to  obtain  them  or  how  to  render  them  most  attractive 
to  customers. 
Inventions  of  value,  present  the  strongest  cases  for  the  exer- 
cise of  concealment  ;  unless  some  means  are  provided  for  the 
protection  of  the  inventor  in  the  legitimate  fruit  of  his  ingenuity  ; 
and  concealment  is  the  worse  evil  to  society  in  the  case.  On 
the  other  hand,  in  case  of  inventions  of  real  and  permanent  value 
