Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  } 
Aug.  1, 1873.  j 
The  Night  Bell 
341 
of  such  a  self-sacrificing  and  responsible  vocation,  and  should  be  ad- 
vised to  turn  his  attention  to  some  other  calling  more  in  accord  with 
his  tastes. 
The  petulance  and  ill-temper  frequently  manifested  by  pharmacists 
when  called  up  at  night  are  very  unbecoming,  and  are  evidences  of 
the  lack  of  the  right  spirit,  and  often  cause  the  loss  of  a  good  cus- 
tomer, as  persons  are  not  likely  to  patronize  a  drug-store  in  day  time 
where  they  are  treated  with  discourtesy  when  compelled  by  necessity 
to  call  at  night.  People  rarely  visit  a  drug-store  between  midnight 
and  five  o'clock  in  the  morning  for  any  article  of  medicine,  no  mat- 
ter how  important  or  how  trifling,  unless  they  absolutely  need  it. 
No  man,  woman  or  child  will  willingly  and  unnecessarily  arise  from 
their  bed,  and  walk  perhaps  four  or  five  squares,  or  even,  in  some 
instances,  eight  or  ten  squares,  to  a  drug-store  for  an  article,  and  that, 
too,  probably,  in  the  dead  hour  of  night,  unless  they  were  prompted 
by  what  they  consider  immediate  and  imperative  necessity ;  and, 
whether  they  really  need  it  or  not,  if  they  think  they  do,  that  is  a 
sufficient  justification  and  excuse  for  their  calling  the  pharmacist  up, 
no  matter  at  what  hour  or  how  trifling  the  want.  There  are,  of 
course,  none  of  us  who  like  to  have  our  rest  broken,  or  to  have  our 
sweet  slumbers  disturbed  by  the  noisy  tongue  of  the  night-bell,  but 
the  duty  to  which  it  summons  us  is  a  legitimate  part  of  our  business, 
and  we  should  therefore  not  feel  too  much  annoyed  at  such  occur- 
rences. 
We  should  all  be  humane  and  charitable  towards  our  nocturnal 
visitors,  for  they  are  generally  brought  to  our  door  either  by  real  or 
imaginary  necessity.  We  cannot  expect  everybody  to  be  as  wise  as 
ourselves  in  matters  relating  to  physic  and  disease.  We  must  make 
due  allowance  for  the  prevailing  ignorance  of  the  public  in  such  mat- 
ters. If  the  public  were  all  doctors  or  pharmacists,  we,  perhaps,* 
would  not  have  our  hours  of  rest  so  frequently  invaded.  A  child, 
perhaps,  is  suddenly  taken  ill,  in  the  middle  of  the  night,  with  pain 
in  the  stomach,  and  begins  to  cry  ;  or  has  taken  a  slight  cold,  and 
has  a  little  fever ;  or  is  threatened  with  croup  or  some  other  disease, 
and  although,  to  a  practiced  or  professional  eye  that  has  a  knowledge 
of  disease,  the  symptoms  would  not  be  at  all  alarming,  since  it  would 
see  in  a  minute  that  there  was  no  immediate  danger,  or  the  slightest 
necessity  for  immediate  medical  aid,  yet  the  excited  parent,  who  is 
not  capable  of  judging  of  the  magnitude  of  the  danger,  becoming 
