212 
Standardized  Preparations. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
May,  1890.  , 
this  purpose.  But  the  results  of  the  action  which  he  thus  advises 
would  be  damaging.  Aside  from  the  danger  of  accidents  resulting 
from  the  sudden  substitution  on  the  prescriptions  of  physicians,  and 
unknown  to  many  of  them,  of  an  article  for  which  they  have  made 
no  requisition,  and  in  many  cases  very  much  stronger  than  they 
desired  and  expected,  there  is  the  objection  that  such  action  would 
impose  upon  pharmacists  the  worst  form  of  the  particular  evils,  with 
the  smallest  amount  of  the  special  benefits,  which  they  are  to  expe- 
rience as  the  result  of  the  change.  Suppose,  for  instance,  that  all 
the  preparations  of  opium,  or  the  most  used  of  them,  were  to  be 
placed  under  this  rule.  Then,  wherever  there  was  a  pharmacist  who 
was  incompetent,  or  otherwise  not  in  a  position,  to'  apply  such  a  princi- 
ple in  his  manufacturing  operations,  he  would  be  absolutely  com- 
pelled to  purchase  the  whole  of  this  class  of  products  from  the 
manufacturing  houses.  Just  so  far  then,  as  the  frequently  asserted 
claim  is  true  that  pharmacists  are  not  capable  of  doing  this  work, 
so  far  would  the  manufacturing  business  be  taken  away  from  him 
by  the  application  of  standardization  to  the  preparations  already 
provided.  Probably  during  the  first  year  or  two  no  very  large 
portion  of  the  prescriptions  sent  him  would  be  written  with  an 
intelligent  desire  for  the  application  of  the  principle  of  standardiza- 
tion. The  pharmacist  would  thus  be  put  in  a  position  of  being 
compelled  to  do  that  which  he  claims  is  unprofitable  and  incon- 
venient, in  advance  of  the  intelligent  action  of  the  physician  and  in 
a  way  whose  suddenness  is  calculated  to  do  him  the  largest  amount 
of  harm.  If,  upon  the  other  hand,  a  special  preparation  were  pro- 
vided to  represent  the  standardization  principle,  then  the  appearance 
of  such  article  in  the  physician's  prescription  would  be  a  clear 
indication  that  such  physician  was  expressing  an  intelligent  wish 
for  the  application  of  that  particular  principle  to  his  prescription, 
and  no  reasonable  pharmacist  would  object  to  taking  any  steps 
necessary  to  satisfy  the  demand.  If  then,  it  were  specially  incon- 
venient for  the  pharmacist  to  manufacture  such  preparation  at  the 
time  that  the  change  went  into  operation,  no  interference  to  his 
business  would  be  caused  until  time  had  been  given  him  to  gradually 
prepare  himself  for  the  change.  His  own  ability  and  convenience 
would  grow  with  the  demand  for  the  preparation,  and  everything 
of  a  radical  nature  in  the  proposed  change  would  be  eliminated. 
This  increase  in  the  number  of  preparations  would  not  be  permanent. 
