\ 
EDITORIAL. 
473 
Prescription  No  — 
For  Mr.  
Dated  186 
Renewed  
do   
do   
Prescription  No.  — —  N.  Y  
For  Mr.  
R,  
."!'.'..'!!!!!r.  Galen,  M. 
Renewable  186  . 
do   186  . 
do   186  . 
186 
RELATIONS  OF  APOTHECARIES   TO  PHYSICIANS. 
An  apothecary  is  simply  a  vender  of  drugs,  whether  he  compounds 
them  personally  or  not;  and  at  law  he  stands  upon  the  same  footing  as 
any  retailer  of  goods,  except  where,  on  account  of  the  peculiar  character 
of  his  commodities,  and  their  relations  to  human  life  or  the  public  health, 
special  statutes  restrict  him  in  the  manner  of  their  sale.  As  to  a  pre- 
scription, it  is  plain  at  the  outset,  that  the  apothecary  cannot  retain  it 
without  the  patient's  permission,  though  he  may  copy  it,  if  he  please,  as 
a  voucher  of  the  articles  dispensed  by  him  in  obedience  to  its  term  ;  other- 
wise, and  in  cases  of  error  in  compounding  prescriptiors,  it  would  be 
difficult  to  trace  the  delinquent.  The  apothecary  being  responsible  for 
want  of  skill  in  his  art,  as  well  as  the  physician,  should  exercise  equal 
caution  in  compounding,  as  the  latter  is  required  to  do  in  prescribing, 
drugs.  Hence  it  is  not  only  proper,  but  his  duty  also,  to  keep  a  copy  of 
every  prescription,  with  date  and  names  of  physician  and  patient.  Or, 
if  he  will  not  do  this,  then  some  law  should  be  passed  requiring  apothe- 
caries to  keep  a'  cancelling  stamp  to  be  struck  upon  every  prescription 
compounded  by  them,  under  a  penalty  for  each  omission.  This  stamp, 
like  those  used  in  post-offices,  might  be  of  any  form  (or  writing  might  be 
used  alone),  and  contain  name  of  apothecary  and  date  of  compounding; 
and  without  mutilating  or  defacing  a  prescription,  would  thus  simply 
record  upon  it  two  important  facts  in  its  history.  The  same  law  should 
contain  a  second  clause,  forbidding  any  apothecary  to  renew  a  prescrip- 
tion once  cancelled,  without  afresh  signature  from  the  physician  originally 
issuing  it.  Now, if  the  physician  thinks  the  patient  may  need  the  same 
prescription  a  second  time,  let  him  fill  out  the  blank  space  headed  "  re- 
newable"— with  either  the  words  "  at  pleasure  of  Mr.  ,  and  upon 
his  order,"  thus  throwing  the  future  responsibility  for  its  use  upon  the 
patient,  or  limit  the  renewal  to  some  particular  date,  as  in  the  first  issue. 
But  where,  as  is  now  so  commonly  the  case,  the  physician  neither  signs 
his  name,  nor  affixes  any  date  or  the  name  of  any  patient  to  his  prescrip- 
tion, there  seems  to  be  no  valid  reason  why  the  apothecary  should  not 
renew  it  just  as  often  as  it  is  called  for.  Like  a  bank  bill  thrown  into 
the  street,  it  is  good  in  any  one's  hands  who  picks  it  up.  If  the  physician's 
name  be  not  attached  to  it,  it  is  not  his  property,  for  he  can  claim  no  exclu- 
sive property  in  drugs,  as  drugs,  but  only  in  the  formula  which  he  has  de- 
signed for  a  particular  occasion.  And  if  he  does  not  patent  it,  as  no  respect- 
able physician  will,  and  as  no  respectable  government  should  permit,  then 
he  cannot  legally  prevent  any  one  from  using  it,  who  simply  uses  the  pre- 
scription without  his  name.  Dr.  Squibb,  for  example,  can  undoubtedly  en- 
join any  one  from  manufacturing  and  selling  his  Diarrhoea  Mixture  under 
his  name  without  permission,  for  his  name  is  his  trade-mark  ;  but  he  cannot 
prevent  any  pharmaceutical  pirate  from  manufacturing  and  selling  it,  under 
the  name  of  Smith's  Intestinal  Anodyne,  or  Great  Sympathetic  Restorer 
