256 
American  Medical  Association. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
June,  1907. 
centre  to  circumference.  By  the  increase  of  membership  of  the  local 
society,  the  national  society  increases  its  wealth,  power  and  influence 
by  an  increase  in  its  membership.  In  return,  the  local  society  is 
benefited  by  the  national  society  establishing  committees  on  Med- 
ical Education,  Legislation  and  Council  on  Pharmacy  and  Chemistry, 
and  its  Journal,  whose  editor  is  ever  ready  to  denounce  fakes  and 
fakirs,  whether  it  be  the  mis-called  Christian  Science  or  Osteopathy — 
whatever  that  may  be — has  proven  an  invaluable  agent  in  promoting 
organization. 
The  local  society  has  increased  its  membership  largely  by  protect- 
ing its  membership  from  suits  for  alleged  malpractice ;  97  per  cent, 
of  these  suits  are  instituted  as  blackmail,  and,  if  stoutly  defended, 
they  are  abandoned  when  the  case  is  called.  That  has  been  the 
experience  of  our  Philadelphia  County  Society.  Mr.  Hampton  L. 
Carson,  of  the  Philadelphia  bar,  is  our  attorney,  and  when  he  takes 
charge  of  one  of  our  cases  we  never  hear  of  either  the  plaintiff  or 
his  lawyer. 
The  local  society  has  been  helped  by  the  Council  of  Pharmacy  and 
Chemistry  of  the  American  Medical  Association.  It  has  made,  and  is 
continually  making,  medical  men  believe  that  the  time  has  now 
come  for  them  to  prescribe  preparations  of  the  United  States  Phar- 
macopoeia and  the  National  Formulary.  Every  body  of  medical 
men  I  have  had  the  honor  of  addressing  the  past  year,  I  have 
appealed  to  them  to  do  two  things — first,  join  the  American  Med- 
ical Association,  so  as  to  get  the  journal — one  of  the  best  medical 
journals  of  the  world — and  become  familiar  with  the  work  of  the 
noble,  disinterested  men  who  are  doing  this  chemical  and  pharma- 
ceutical work  for  our  guidance;  second,  I  have  appealed  to  them  to 
make  it  a  point  to  prescribe,  whenever  they  can,  the  preparations  of 
the  United  States  Pharmacopoeia  and  National  Formulary. 
In  my  association  with  medical  men  from  all  parts  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, I  find  the  disposition  for  prescribing  these  remedies  is 
growing. 
The  local  society  of  our  own  city  will  be  called  upon  in  the  near 
future  to  take  measures  to  help  abate  an  evil  which  concerns  you 
pharmacists  as  well  as  the  physicians  of  our  city.  I  refer  to  the 
club  practice  evil.  This  buying  the  services  of  the  physician  and 
druggist  at  wholesale,  and  then  selling  them  at  retail,  not  to  the 
poor  and  needy,  but  too  often  to  those  well  able  to  pay,  should  cease. 
