176 
Extemporaneous  Pharmacy. 
(  Am.  Jour.  Phark. 
t     Apr.  1,  1874, 
trouble  to  inquire  into  the  matter,  what  a  lamentable  state  of  affairs 
would  be  brought  to  light !  I  do  not  wish  to  be  understood  as  depre- 
ciating or  underrating  the  standard  of  knowledge  and  ability  pos- 
sessed by  our  druggists  as  a  class, — far  from  it — but  it  is  a  fact  well 
known  to  every  thoughtful  mind,  that  there  are  a  great  many  per- 
sons in  the  ranks  of  our  profession  who  are  terribly  deficient  in  this- 
most  important  branch.  And  this  is  the  more  inexcusable  when 
Colleges  and  Text  books  are  so  plenty  and  good,  offering  to  all  who- 
choose  to  avail  themselves  of  their  privileges  the  advantages  of  a 
good  sound  pharmaceutical  education. 
Nor  are  druggists  the  only  ones  to  blame  in  this  matter.  The  pre- 
scription files  of  any  of  our  retail  drug  stores  will  show  orders,  some 
of  them  written  by  men  standing  high  in  their  profession — 
bright  and  shining  lights  of  the  medical  firmament — calling  for 
the  administration  of  drugs  not  only  chemically,  but  often  pharma- 
ceutically  incompatible.  But  it  is  to  the  case  of  the  druggist  that  E 
wish  to  call  attention  more  particularly  at  this  time.  It  oftentimes 
happens  that  the  exhibition  of  two  or  more  articles  in  combination 
depends  mainly,  and  even  entirely,  for  its  success  upon  the  skilful 
manner  in  which  the  prescription  is  compounded.  In  such  a  case 
how  important  it  is  to  know  just  "  what  to  do,"  and  "  how  to  do  it !  " 
The  health,  and  oftentimes  the  life  itself  of  the  patient  may  be  in 
our  hands,  and  woe  be  unto  us  if  we  prove  recreant  to  the  great  trust 
reposed  in  us  !  What  a  cause  of  poignant  grief  and  self-recrimina- 
tion it  would  be  to  know  that  our  criminal  neglect  of  the  means  of 
knowledge  within  our  reach  has  been  the  means  of  hurrying  some 
soul,  perhaps  unprepared,  into  the  presence  of  its  maker  and  its 
judge. 
But  it  falls  to  our  lot  not  only  to  compound  and  dispense  cor- 
rectly and  knowingly,  but  it  is  also  laid  upon  us  to  correct  the 
oftrepeated  mistakes  of  prescribers.  This  is  a  matter  of  much 
delicacy,  and  requiring  a  great  deal  of  individual  tact,  as  no  set 
of  rules  can  be  laid  down  to  guide  us  in  these  cases.  We  are 
sometimes  startled  by  having  handed  to  us  a  prescription  calling  for 
a  large  quantity  of  some  poisonous  alkaloid,  for  example,  and  unac- 
companied by  any  directions  for  use,  (a  neglect,  by  the  way,  of  what 
is  evidently  right  and  duty  in  most  cases  at  least,  that  is  strangely 
prevalent  at  present).  In  this  case  we  are  compelled  either  by  adroit 
questioning  to  get  some  idea  of  the  manner  in  which  the  medicine  is* 
