190 
EDITORIAL. 
does not end here : as he finds his income increased from this new 
source, it becomes a direct inducement to prescribe oftener, in larger 
quantities, and in more expensive forms ; for we do not hesitate to be- 
lieve, that any medical man who will so far wound his self respect as to 
propose such a source of revenue, will find no scruples beset him 
against the practice of over medication. On the other hand, an apothe- 
cary who will enter into such an agreement, must seek some means of 
compensation for the per centage paid to the physician, and the most 
natural source of this is a resort to over-charging his customers, either 
directly by increase of his usual price, or indirectly by an understand- 
ing with the prescriber as to the form of the prescription ; increasing 
the doses or bulk without materially adding to the cost of the medi- 
cines. 
We will take advantage of this occasion to allude to some abuses 
which do exist to a certain extent amongst us, and which are chiefly 
attributable to the over burthened ranks of both professions. Of the 
large number of medical graduates who annually derive their authority 
to practice from the flourishing medical institutions of this city, a fair 
proportion belong to Philadelphia, or conclude to remain here, and 
unfortunately their ratio of increase is greater than that of the popula- 
tion. We all know of the drawbacks and discouragements incident to 
establishing a medical practice. A number of young physicians, in the 
hope of surmounting the pecuniary difficulties which mark the com- 
mencement of their career, have opened drug stores, and conducted 
them either by the assistance of apothecaries, or with the slender stock 
of pharmaceutical knowledge acquired during the course of their 
medical education. At such stores medical advice is administered 
gratis, as an inducement to a certain class of customers who aim at 
avoiding the fee of the physician. This species of counter practice 
induces a similar one on the part of some apothecaries, from compe- 
tition or necessity, and is one of the means of destroying the well 
defined line of separation. 
Another serious feature in the existing state of Pharmacy, is the large 
number of badly qualified assistants. Some of these, with but a tithe 
of the requisite knowledge, open petty stores, and in order to get busi- 
ness, undersell their neighbors, until assurance gives them pecuniary 
success, or till they cease from inability to meet their engagements. 
The chief source of this class of apothecaries will be found in a defi- 
cient pharmaceutical education. Boys go to the business — stay one 
or two years, perhaps under unfavorable circumstances — become dis- 
gusted and leave their apprenticeship, to hire for a small salary, at 
places where they will hardly add materially to their stock of know- 
ledge. Many of this class would have become useful and respectable 
members of the community, if they had been placed at a busines 
