AmAprif.'i90Lrm"}    American  Pharmaceutical  Association.  189 
Mr.  John  K.  Thum  read  a  paper  entitled  "  A  Retrospect  of  Dis- 
cussions on  the  Renewal  of  Prescriptions,"  in  which  he  briefly 
reviewed  a  number  of  recorded  discussions  on  this  particular  subject 
and  quoted  at  length  from  an  opinion  by  the  late  Dr.  E.  R.  Squibb, 
expressed  in  Philadelphia  in  1868.  In  discussing  the  desirability 
of  having  a  law  to  regulate  the  renewal  of  prescriptions  Dr.  Squibb 
asserted  that  it  would  be  unwise  to  introduce  law  or  fixed  rules  to 
govern  the  renewal  of  all  prescriptions  and  that  after  all  it  was  but 
a  matter  of  honesty,  good  sense  and  education  on  the  part  of  the 
pharmacist. 
Mr.  Thum  held  that  this  opinion  by  Dr.  Squibb  covered  the 
question  fully  as  well  to-day  as  it  did  forty  years  ago.  He  further 
expressed  the  belief  that  the  pharmacist  could  and  should  control 
the  indiscriminate  renewal  of  prescriptions  that  are  at  all  likely  to 
do  harm,  by  following  the  plan  described  by  Mr.  William  Burke,  of 
Detroit,  at  the  semi-centennial  meeting  of  the  American  Pharma- 
ceutical Association,  in  Philadelphia,  in  1902.  Mr.  Burke's  plan 
was  to  discourage  the  refilling  of  prescriptions  by  attaching  to  all 
repeats  a  small  sticker  with  a  legend  somewhat  as  follows : — 
"  More  harm  than  good  is  often  done  by  repeating  these  pre- 
scriptions, and  it  is  well  to  consult  your  physician  before  refilling." 
Dr.  H.  C.  Wood,  Jr.,  in  opening  the  general  discussion,  said  that 
we  should  never  lose  sight  of  the  most  important  factors  in  this 
connection,  and  they  are  the  protection  of  the  public  health  and  the 
guarding  of  patients  against  the  ever  possible  generation  of  a  drug 
habit. 
He  believed  it  to  be  wise  tor  physicians  to  write  the  injunction 
not  to  renew  the  prescription  on  all  orders  for  potent  or  habit-form- 
ing drugs,  but  he  also  believed  that  where  this  had  been  omitted 
it  should  be  the  duty  of  the  pharmacist  to  guard  the  patient  from 
the  abuse  of  medicines  of  this  kind.  In  concluding  he  expressed 
the  opinion  that  common  sense  and  forethought  would  tend  to  make 
the  question  of  the  renewal  of  prescriptions  a  very  simple  one. 
The  question  was  further  discussed  by  Drs.  Cattell,  Robinson, 
Minehardt,  Lowe,  Thrush,  Stewart,  Smith  and  Kelly,  and  by  Messrs. 
Remington,  Gable,  Blair,  Mclntyre,  Wilbert,  Greenawalt,  Hunsber- 
ger,  Apple  and  Thum.  As  noted  before,  the  discussion  elicited  con- 
siderable difference  of  opinion  on  a  number  of  the  points  that  were 
involved,  and  at  the  conclusion  of  the  discussion  the  secretary  was 
