28  Work  of  the  Council  on  Pharmacy.  {A^iryPi9o7rm' 
past  these  have  been  practically  free  from  the  advertisement  of  any 
improper  or  deceptive  preparation. 
In  the  meanwhile,  the  work  of  preparing  the  text  for  the  pro- 
posed book  has  been  going  on,  and  within  the  last  few  months 
portions  of  this  text  have  been  published  in  a  tentative  way,  in  the 
weekly  issue  of  the  Journal  of  the  American  Medical  Association. 
These  published  descriptions  will  show  the  physician  the  general 
character  of  the  book,  and  will  give  him  also  reliable  information, 
the  result  of  careful  inquiry,  and  in  some  cases,  of  critical  analyses, 
made  on  the  part  of  the  members  of  the  Council. 
It  is  possible,  of  course,  that  mistakes  have  been  made  in  some 
cases,  but  it  is  believed  that  the  mistakes  are  more  generally  those 
of  omission  rather  than  of  commission,  and  where  such  mistakes 
are  clearly  pointed  out,  the  Council  stands  ready  to  correct  them. 
When  this  movement  began,  the  support  which  it  had  from  the 
medical  profession,  while  very  positive  in  some  quarters,  was  not  at 
all  general,  probably  because  of  lack  of  information  on  the  subject, 
but  it  may  be  safely  said,  as  was  shown  by  the  testimony  at  the 
meeting  of  the  American  Medical  Association  at  Boston,  in  June 
last,  that  the  support  of  the  large  majority  of  the  members  of  the 
medical  profession  throughout  the  United  States  has  been  given  it, 
and  we  believe  also  that  back  of  that  stands  the  public  opinion  and 
support,  which  has  very  rapidly  developed  within  the  past  year, 
because  of  the  great  publicity  given  to  the  question  of  proprietary 
medicines  and  the  rights  of  their  manufacturers  to  furnish  to  the 
doctor  and  the  public  mixtures  of  unknown  composition,  possibly 
dangerous  in  their  actual  administration. 
I  am  certain  that  none  of  us  realize  the  wide-reaching  results 
which  the  recently  enacted  Pure  Food  and  Drugs  Bill  will  have,  in 
the  way  of  correcting  many  of  the  worst  of  these  abuses,  and  cur- 
tailing the  field  for  the  exploitation  of  some  of  these  proprietary 
medicines. 
