174  Renewal  of  Prescriptions.  { Amx£?£$K.rm' 
more  syrup  of  rhubarb  to  that  person.  If  the  syrup  of  rhubarb  can 
never  be  again  sold  without  a  written  prescription  it  obstructs  the  thing 
entirely.  Any  article  in  common  use  may  be  excluded  from  sale  by 
such  a  regulation  as  that.  I  mention  this  as  an  extravagant  case  to 
show  that  no  such  rule  as  is  proposed  here  ever  could  be  adopted 
with  justice."  Dr.  Squibb  further  asserted  that  it  would  be  a  hard- 
ship upon  the  physician  to  be  obliged  to  write  a  prescription  for 
every  simple  remedy,  but  that,  on  the  other  hand,  the  pharmacist 
should,  and  no  doubt  would,  refuse  to  put  up  a  prescription  contain- 
ing potent  or  habit-forming  drugs,  or  one  that  was  otherwise 
injurious  in  character.  In  concluding  he  said  :  "It  is  a  thing  that 
cannot  be  laid  down  by  law.  It  must  depend  upon  the  education 
of  the  pharmacist,  who  must  be  educated  to  have  such  judgment  as 
to  be  able  to  decide  these  minor  points." 
The  committee  appointed  to  consider  the  subject  of  the  renewal 
of  prescriptions  subsequently  presented  a  preamble  and  resolution 
asserting,  among  others,  that: 
"The  Association  regards  the  pharmacist  as  the  proper  custo- 
dian and  the  owner  of  the  physician's  prescription." 
"  The  restriction  of  the  pharmacist  to  a  single  dispensing  of  a 
prescription,  without  the  written  authority  of  the  prescribing  phy- 
sician for  its  renewal,  is  neither  practicable  nor  within  the  province 
of  this  Association." 
"  Nevertheless  we  regard  the  indiscriminate  renewal  of  prescrip- 
tions, especially  when  intended  for  the  use  of  others  than  those  for 
whom  they  were  prescribed,  as  neither  just  to  the  physician  nor  to 
the  patient,  between  whom  we  stand  as  conservators  of  the  interest 
of  both,  and  that  such  abuses  should  be  discouraged  by  all  proper 
means." 
It  is  quite  evident  that  the  matter  of  the  renewal  of  prescriptions 
was  considered  by  these  pioneers  of  American  pharmacy  from  a 
common-sense  point  of  view.  Dr.  Squibb  brought  the  question  down 
to  its  only  legitimate  solution,  that  of  education  and  proper  train- 
ing. If  teachers  in  pharmaceutical  schools  would,  at  appropriate 
times,  impress  upon  their  students  the  necessity  and  value  of  a  cul- 
tivation of  the  moral  sense  and  instill  in  them  a  nice  sense  of  honor, 
the  renewal  of  prescriptions  as  well  as  other  abuses  which  are 
lowering  the  tone  of  true  pharmacy  would  correct  themselves  in 
short  order. 
