332  Purposes  of  the  National  Formulary.    { Am-juT/;i?Marm- 
credulity.  Alas!  the  pharmacist  has  proven  himself  only  too  willing 
to  act  as  distributing  agent  and  middleman  in  dispensing  medicinal 
compounds  of  someone  else's  manufacture.  Is  this  owing  to  a  lack 
of  enterprise,  or  a  lack  of  ability,  or  both  ? 
Induced  by  the  large  profits  to  be  secured,  the  unbounded  activity 
on  the  part  of  the  manufacturers,  who  aspire  to  instruct  and  aid 
physicians  in  their  practice,  is  only  equalled  by  the  lavish  praise  and 
recommendation  of  formulas  (someone's  favorite  prescription),  to 
say  nothing  of  the  teeming  pages  of  nostrum  advertisements  con- 
stantly found  in  the  medical  journals.  The  American  Medical 
Society,  at  their  last  meeting,  characterized  in  the  severest  terms 
the  prostitution  of  the  pages  of  their  official  journal  to  such  base 
ends. 
A  physician's  practice  must  be  intiicate  and  complicated  to  a 
degree,  if  he  cannot  find  in  the  U.  S.  Pharmacopoeia  and  National 
Formulary  remedies  to  meet  all  his  demands.  The  physician  and 
pharmacist  are  working  together  in  a  worthy  cause  and  must  of  a 
necessity  be  mutually  helpful.  If  we  fail  to  inspire  our  co-laborers 
with  confidence  in  our  ability  as  pharmacists,  it  is  because  we  have 
not  measured  up  to  our  opportunities.  The  latest  editions  of  all  the 
text-books  in  the  druggist's  library,  together  with  some  of  the 
excellent  pharmaceutical  journals  now  published  at  so  small  a  cost, 
not  only  furnish  us  with  the  weapons  of  proficiency,  but  create  an 
impression  on  the  mind  of  the  physician  only  equalled  by  that  of  a 
well-appointed  laboratory.  Besides,  if  the  physician  accepts  the 
aid  of  the  manufacturer  in  his  practice,  he  would  not  refuse  the. 
efforts  of  the  local  pharmacist  in  that  direction,  were  they  offered. 
Let  us  prove  ourselves  such  competent  pharmacists  that  there  will 
be  no  question  in  the  mind  of  any  of  our  physicians  as  to  our 
ability  to  prepare  any  remedy  to  meet  any  special  case.  We  can 
best  make  our  doctor  patron  acquainted  with  the  merits  of  the 
National  Formulary  by  placing  in  his  hands  a  copy  of  the  work, 
and  would  it  not  be  a  good  stroke  of  business  to  do  so?  We  may 
expect,  in  the  near  future,  an  issue  of  a  revised  and  enlarged  edition. 
The  present  condition  of  the  druggist  is  in  many  cases  a  struggle 
for  existence,  and  the  outlook  for  the  future  points  to  a  survival  of 
the  fittest. 
His  only  hope  is  in  producing,  manufacturing,  everything  in  his 
line  which  affords  a  margin  of  profit — not  only  the  pharmaceuti- 
