Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  \ 
February,  19 17.  ' 
Martin  I.  Wilbert. 
53 
fight  for  a  principle  must  be  prepared  for  this,  and,  as  Wilbert  was 
a  philosopher,  he  accepted  the  abuse  and  scurrility  that  was  some- 
times handed  out  to  him  with  that  spirit  that  only  a  great  character 
always  exhibits. 
At  the  German  Hospital  pharmacy  he  adopted  at  once  the  policy 
of  buying  the  crude  drugs  and  chemicals  from  reliable  sources  and 
carefully  testing  them  to  see  that  they  came  up  to  official  require- 
ments. When  they  failed  to  meet  the  standards  they  were  returned 
with  a  courteous  note  explaining  the  reasons  therefor.  He  was  a 
great  believer  in  doing  an  unpleasant  thing  in  a  pleasant  way.  In 
other  words  he  was  always  a  gentleman.  When  the  tested  drugs 
and  chemicals  came  up  to  the  requirements,  and  not  before,  they 
were  then  manufactured  into  the  various  pharmaceutical  prepara- 
tions and  dosage  forms.  This  policy  of  manufacturing  our  own 
preparations  was  of  inestimable  benefit  to  both  our  patients  and  doc- 
tors, as  the  latter  were  always  sure  that  medicines  were  true  to  label, 
and  that  their  patients  were  getting  just  what  they  wanted  them  to 
get. 
Everything  in  the  pharmaceutical  line  was  made,  fluidextracts, 
effervescent  salts,  elixirs,  emulsions,  glycerites,  infusions,  liniments, 
collodion,  ointments,  suppositories,  medicated  waters,  syrups,  tinc- 
tures, troches,  spirits,  solutions,  and  mixtures  of  all  kinds,  hypoder- 
matic tablets,  and  many  thousands  of  compressed  tablets  in  the 
course  of  a  year.  All  this  meant  work  and  plenty  of  it,  but  it  was 
pharmacy  and  was  in  the  interests  of  economy.  As  the  hospital, 
like  all  charitable  institutions,  has  the  privilege  of  tax-free  alcohol, 
it  was  a  distinct  asset  for  it  to  have  in  its  employ  a  man  who  was  a 
real  pharmacist  and  who  was  willing  to  work  at  it.  And  our  dear 
friend  was  all  of  that ;  and  not  only  that,  but  he  had  the  happy  fac- 
ulty of  inspiring  his  associates  to  the  same  desire  for  work  and  use- 
fulness. 
It  was  due  to  his  initiative  that  the  hospital  has  its  own  apparatus 
for  making  carbonated  waters.  Some  years  as  many  as  over  ten 
thousand  bottles  of  these  are  filled.  An  automatic  water  still  is 
also  one  of  our  useful  possessions  and  the  idea  is  one  of  the  many 
good  ones  from  his  fertile  brain. 
Dr.  Wilbert  always  had  a  horror  for  secrecy  in  the  manufacture 
and  sale  of  medicines,  and  while  it  may  be  admitted  that  many  pro- 
prietaries do  not  come  within  this  category,  yet  he  could  not  alto- 
gether reconcile  himself  to  even  these,  he  contending  that  as  the 
