470 
EDITORIAL. 
cian  had  left  unprovided  by  "  an  order  for  renewal,"  would  have  to  be 
home  by  the  physician.  In  fact,  any  legislator  would  be  delinquent 
in  duty  to  his  constituents  who  did  not  frame  the  law  so  as  to  exact  from 
the  writer  of  a  prescription  made  non-renewable  an  equal  penalty  for  ne* 
gleet  of  duty  in  case  the  patient  suffered  from  the  want  of  medicine  thus 
withheld  from  him.  We  believe  that  measures  such  as  those  proposed 
by  Prof.  Ordronaux  would  be  much  better  substituted  by  others  tending 
to  raise  the  educational  status  of  the  mass  of  both  medical  and  pharma- 
ceutical practitioners,  by  requiring  a  legal  certificate  of  qualification  from 
all  persons  engaged  in  the  prescribing  and  dispensing  of  medicines.  When 
a  glance  is  taken  over  our  large  cities  at  the  host  of  medical  and  pharma- 
ceutical pretenders  who  flourish  undisturbed  in  their  abnormal  functions, 
not  to  speak  of  the  numerous  instances  of  authorized  practitioners  in 
both  professions  whom  nature  never  intended  for  the  life  and  death  re- 
sponsibilities attendent  on  the  prescribing  and  dispensing  of  medicines, 
we  believe  there  are  much  more  worthv  objects  for  the  reformatory  ac- 
tion of  our  medical  brethren,  whether  in  their  individual  or  collective  ca- 
pacity, than  are  embraced  in  the  prevention  of  apothecaries  from  renew- 
ing their  prescriptions  for  patients  whom  they  are  not  willing  to  trust 
with  the  responsibility  of  obeying  their  directions.  As  regards  the  "pro- 
prietary right  of  physicians  in  their  own  prescriptions,"  we  doubt  the  ex- 
istence of  any  such  right  outside  of  the  law  of  copy-right — which  merely 
applies  to  publication.  The  moment  a  prescription  is  published  to  the 
world,  the  world  will  use  it  if  valuable,  and  the  only  way  to  prevent  this 
result  is  for  the  physician  to  relapse  into  the  habits  of  his  predecessor  of 
the  middle  ages,  and  concoct  in  the  secret  recesses  of  his  own  laboratory 
the  prescriptions  for  his  patients,  a  fate  to  which  we  earnestly  trust  he 
may  never  be  submitted,  as  it  would  sound  the  death  knell  to  all  liberal- 
ism in  medicine  and  pharmacy.  With  these  preliminary  remarks  we  offer 
the  Professor's  letter  in  full,  as  well  that  our  pharmaceutical  brethren  in 
New  York  should  be  advised  of  what  is  in  store  for  them,  should  he  con- 
vince the  wise  men  of  Albany  of  the  value  of  his  remedy,  as  because  in 
the  first  part  there  is  some  really  good  advice  to  physicians  regarding  the 
manner  of  writing  and  issuing  prescriptions,  of  which  we  cordially  approve* 
To  the  Editor  of  the  Medical  Record. 
Sir — At  the  last  meeting  of  the  New  York  State  Medical  Society, 
Dr.  John  P.  Gray,  as  President,  called  attention,  in  his  introductory 
discourse,  to  the  necessity  of  some  legislation  upon  the  subject  of  the 
indisciiminate  sale  of  medicines  by  incompetent  apothecaries  ;  as  also  of 
drugs  calculated  to  produce  abortion,  though  advertised  with  an  ironical 
caution  against  their  use,  intended  to  mask  in  a  legal  way  their  predeter- 
mined purpose.  Of  the  wisdom  and  justice  of  Dr.  Gray's  suggestions 
none  can  entertain  any  doubt,  nor  does  the  subject  deserve  less  consid- 
eration because  of  its  frequent  mention  heretofore  in  various  medical  as- 
semblages, both  local  as  well  as  national.  It  is  one  which  appeals  to  the 
best  interests  of  society  in  the  future,  as  well  as  in  the  present,  and 
should  be  recognized  by  legislators  as  forming  part  of  that  great  depart- 
ment of  the  common  weal  known  as  State  Medicine.    Whatever  legal 
