1 6       Four  Things  Every  Druggist  Should  Know.    {A  jaiuaryf^o:.00' 
tory  average  be  yielded.  If  it  is  necessary  to  carry  a  lot  of  stuff 
that  pays  indifferently,  the  thing  to  do  is  to  expend  a  little  gray 
matter  in  planning  to  put  in  something  that  will  pay  handsomely 
and  bring  up  the  average. 
Now  as  for  the  fourth  essential  fact  which  every  druggist  ought 
to  know,  this  is  in  a  sense  confirmatory  of  the  other  three  and  con- 
sequently need  not  be  discussed  at  length.  A  man  should  know 
what  his  annual  earnings  are  in  order  that  he  may  understand  whether 
the  business  yields  him  as  much  as  it  should,  and  in  order,  also, 
that  he  may  decide  upon  his  living  expenses  intelligently.  But  he 
should  know  this  fact  with  absolute  certainty.  That  many  druggists 
deceive  themselves  as  to  their  income  by  faulty  methods  of  calcula- 
tion, or  by  no  calculation  at  all,  has  been  borne  home  to  me  after 
considerable  observation  and  experience. 
THE  METHOD  OF  BOOKKEEPING. 
Now  granting  the  necessity  of  knowing  the  four  things  which  I 
have  declared  to  be  essential  to  every  druggist,  the  question  arises  : 
How  may  they  be  learned  easily  and  simply,  without  expense  of 
time  and  labor  ? 
After  I  had  read  a  paper  on  one  phase  of  this  general  subject  at 
the  last  meeting  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association,  a 
pharmacist  came  to  me  privately  and  said :  "  I  must  admit  that  I  am 
one  of  the  foolish  druggists  who  keep  no  business  records,  but  my 
excuse  is  that  I  am  busy  and  have  no  time  for  them."  Others  have 
expressed  similar  views  and  there  is  no  doubt  that  many  druggists 
are  deceiving  themselves  with  the  assumption  that  a  great  deal  of 
time  would  be  consumed  in  making  proper  records  of  their  business 
operations.  Still  others,  again,  do  not  know  how  to  go  about  the 
task. 
I  mean  to  outline  a  simple  method  that  will  not  take  five  minutes 
a  day  and  that  can  be  practised  in  connection  with  the  handling  of 
customers'  accounts.  Let  me  say  at  the  outset  that  this  plan  will 
not  please  merchants  who  keep  thorough  and  complete  records  of 
everything,  and  who  use  a  double-entry  system  for  the  purpose. 
While  the  latter  method  is  the  ideal  one,  and  while  it  is  employed 
by  all  the  large  retailers  throughout  the  country,  I  am  quite  con- 
vinced that  it  would  be  useless  to  expect  the  average  druggist  to 
adopt  it.  He  will  throw  the  whole  thing  aside  if  too  much  is  ex- 
pected of  him. 
