54 
Martin  I.  Wilbert. 
(Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
<•  February,  19 17. 
patients  generally  paid  many  times  what  they  would  have  to  pay  for 
a  prescription  of  useful  pharmacopceial  drugs,  it  was  not  altogether 
honest.  For  a  prescription  to  be  presented  to  him  calling  for  one 
or  more  proprietary  medicines  was  like  gall  and  wormwood  to  him. 
He  felt  so  strongly  and  earnestly  on  this  matter  that  the  board  of 
trustees,  at  his  request,  adopted  the  following  resolution :  "  No  pre- 
scription containing  in  all,  or  in  part,  a  proprietary  medicine  shall 
be  compounded  or  dispensed  at  the  pharmacy  of  the  hospital,  unless 
the  prescription  shall  be  personally  signed  by  a  chief  of  the  house, 
or  a  chief  of  the  dispensary,  or  by  the  medical  superintendent." 
We  doubt  if  there  is  another  hospital  in  the  country  where  the 
doctors  confine  themselves  so  closely  to  the  prescribing  of  the  really 
useful  drugs  known  to  science;  where  the  administration  of  medi- 
cines is  carried  out  in  so  rational  and  intelligent  a  manner.  Our  in- 
ternes are  cautioned  against  gullibility,  and  taught  the  advantages  of 
exhibiting  an  intelligent  and  honest  skepticism  in  regard  to  the  newer 
remedies.  We  are  fair  to  everybody  when  we  assert  that  this  pol- 
icy was  largely  due  to  Dr.  Wilbert's  influence. 
One  of  the  most  useful  things  that  Dr.  Wilbert  did  for  pharmacy 
in  this  city  was  the  initiative  that  he  took  in  the  organization  of  the 
Philadelphia  Branch  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association. 
His  activity  in  this  matter  was  really  the  beginning  of  his  develop- 
ment as  the  most  marked  power  and  personality  in  the  profession 
of  pharmacy  to-day,  and  helped  to  develop  him  as  the  one  who  really 
and  actually  was  the  connecting  link  between  the  two  professions  of 
medicine  and  pharmacy.  There  was  not  a  little  diffidence  among 
some  of  the  leaders  of  pharmacy  in  this  good  old  City  of  Brotherly 
Love  at  that  time  as  to  the  advisability  of  starting,  and  the  necessity 
for  such,  an  organization.  But  behind  our  friend's  genial  disposi- 
tion there  was  an  indomitable  will,  and  by  the  exercise  of  tact  and 
diplomacy  he  aroused  an  enthusiasm  that  was  almost  equivalent  to 
his  own  and  the  Branch  was  organized  at  once,  with  everybody  won- 
dering why,  in  the  birthplace  of  pharmacy  in  this  country,  Philadel- 
phians  had  not  seen  to  it  that  the  organization  of  the  first  branch 
should  take  effect  in  this  typically  American  city,  where  nearly  all 
the  great  movements  in  medicine  and  pharmacy  had  their  inception. 
The  members  of  the  newly-organized  branch,  in  casting  about 
for  a  secretary,  for  after  all  is  said,  the  live  wire  in  any  organiza- 
tion is,  or  should  be,  the  secretary,  immediately  recognized  the 
fact  that  Dr.  Wilbert  was  admirably  fitted  for  this  office  and  the 
