Am"j'S?ywo3.arm'}     Current  Notes  for  Future  History.  347 
"  It  is  equally  derogatory  to  professional  character  for  physicians 
to  hold  patents  for  any  surgical  instruments  or  medicines;  to  accept 
rebates  on  prescriptions  or  surgical  appliances ;  to  assist  unqualified 
persons  to  evade  the  legal  restrictions  governing  the  practice  of 
medicine  ;  or  to  dispense  or  promote  the  use  of  secret  medicines; 
for  if  such  nostrums  are  of  real  efficacy  any  concealment  regarding 
them  is  inconsistent  with  beneficence  and  professional  liberality,  and 
if  mystery  alone  give  them  public  notoriety,  such  craft  implies  either 
disgraceful  ignorance  or  fraudulent  avarice.  It  is  highly  reprehen- 
sible for  physicians  to  give  certificates  attesting  the  efficacy  of  secret 
medicines  or  other  substances  used  therapeutically." 
The  other  item  is  section  5  of  chapter  3: 
"  It  is  the  duty  of  physicians  to  recognize  and  by  legitimate 
patronage  to  promote  the  profession  of  pharmacy,  on  the  skill  and 
proficiency  of  which  depends  the  reliability  of  remedies ;  but  any 
pharmacist  who,  although  educated  in  his  own  profession,  is  not  a 
qualified  physician,  and  who  assumes  to  prescribe  for  the  sick,  ought 
not  to  receive  such  countenance  and  support.  Any  druggist  or 
pharmacist  who  dispenses  deteriorated  or  sophisticated  drugs,  or 
who  substitutes  one  remedy  for  another  designated  in  a  prescription, 
ought  thereby  to  forfeit  the  recognition  and  influence  of  physicians." 
To  these  two  sections  every  fair-minded  pharmacist  will  cheerfully 
subscribe ;  for,  if  lived  up  to  on  the  part  of  the  several  members  of 
the  two  professions,  they  would  go  far  to  eliminate  many  of  the 
existing  abuses,  and  also  have  a  marked  tendency  of  furthering  and 
facilitating  the  demonstration  of  scientific  truths,  without  which  no 
real  progress  can  be  made. 
One  other  action  of  the  American  Medical  Association  that  may 
contribute  materially  to  promote  the  progress  of  medical  science  is 
the  proposed  admission  of  pharmacists  as  members  of  the  section 
on  Materia  Medica,  Pharmacy  and  Therapeutics. 
The  original  amendment,  as  offered  to  the  House  of  Delegates  by 
the  Business  Committee,  was  for  Pharmaceutic  Associate  Members, 
and  read  as  follows :  "  Pharmacists  who  are  recognized  graduates  of 
pharmaceutic  schools  or  colleges  and  are  members  of  the  American 
Pharmaceutical  Association  may  be  admitted  as  associate  members 
on  recommendation  of  the  officers  of  the  section  on  Materia  Medica, 
Pharmacy  and  Therapeutics,  subject  to  approval  by  a  majority  of 
the  members  of  the  section." 
