AFebVuaryj9Hor'}         Protection  Afforded  by  Law.  93 
without  qualification  either  in  the  shape  of  a  diploma,  a  license,  or 
a  registration.  Any  one  doing  so  renders  himself  liable  to  fine  and 
imprisonment ;  but  the  pharmacist  is  lured  on  to  a  college  education 
and  a  diploma  and  graduates  a  qualified  man  to  find  his  business 
usurped  by  the  unqualified  man  without  any  redress  at  hand. 
Some  have  said  that  my  statement  of  poison  and  poisonous  prod- 
ucts for  pharmacists  would  be  class  legislation,  therefore  unconsti- 
tutional. It  is  not  class  legislation  any  more  than  that  which  applies 
to  lawyers,  physicians  and  other  classes  referred  to,  and  while  it  will 
help  pharmacists  it  will  help  the  general  community  more, 'the  same 
as  it  has  in  the  classes  mentioned. 
If  you  have  been  reading  the  public  press  you  will  find  more  and 
more  cases  of  mys  erious  poisoning  occupying  the  attention  of  the 
public,  showing  that  the  wide  distribution  of  poisons  outside  of  a 
regular  channel  is  producing  crime  which  is  undetectable. 
The  present  laws  which  are  being  pressed  requiring  a  prescription 
from  a  physician  I  do  not  approve.  It  is  simply  taking  the  sale  and 
distribution  from  the  hands  of  the  pharmacist  and  placing  it  in  the 
hands  of  another  set  of  men,  practically  saying  pharmacists  have 
not  the  moral  courage  to  properly  conduct  their  business ;  but  phy- 
sicians are  such  a  higher  type  of  men,  they  are  the  proper  ones. 
We  are  fined  $100  for  selling  cocaine,  but  the  physician  may  pre- 
scribe or  sell  it  himself  "ad  libitum  "  without  punishment.  I  offer 
you  the  criminal  annals  to  prove  if  this  be  a  good  law. 
Much  has  been  said  about  the  dispensing  physicians;  by  the 
securing  of  such  a  law  much  of  this  evil  would  be  remedied.  The 
sentiment  among  physicians  is  against  giving  of  their  own  medi- 
cines as  it  means  extra  trouble  and  expense ;  but  what  one  does 
forces  the  other  to  follow.  If  such  a  law  were  established  it  would 
be  unlawful  for  a  physician  to  dispense,  and  while  I  am  aware  it 
would  be  next  to  impossible  to  stop  the  practice  altogether,  nor  is 
such  my  intention,  but  the  moral  force  of  having  such  a  law  would 
bring  it  to  its  normal,  healthy  level,  the  same  as  our  city  ordinance 
against  expectoration  has  brought  spitting  from  a  disgusting  and 
unsightly  abuse  to  a  condition  of  fair  cleanliness. 
Another  point  which  appeals  to  all  sane  men  is  that  no  one  man 
can  know  it  all,  and  there  is  a  place  for  the  special  work  done  by 
the  pharmacist.  As  a  suggestion  along  the  lines  I  am  following 
would  it  not  be  well  for  our  Board  of  Pharmacy,  while  bothering 
