326  Function  of  the  True  Pharmacist.  {AmjJu°iy7i9oh6arm* 
or  the  notion  dealer,  or  the  six-dollar  clerk  in  the  department 
store,  has  sufficient  knowledge  to  take  a  package  from  the  shelf  and 
hand  it  to  a  purchaser,  or  even  to  decant  a  portion  of  it  into 
another  container.  To  do  this  requires  merely  the  ability  to  read 
a  label — or  perhaps  only  to  recognize  a  picture.  As  a  phy- 
sician I  look  to  my  brothers  of  the  pharmaceutical  profession  for 
greater  knowledge,  greater  skill  and  greater  assistance  than  I  can 
get  from  the  grocer's  clerk  or  the  errand  boy.  I  am  in  the  habit 
of  consulting  with  friends  in  your  profession — and  I  see  here  some 
of  those  who  have  thus  aided  me — concerning  new  drugs  introduced 
from  time  to  time,  new  uses  and  new  preparations  of  old  drugs,  the 
possiblities  of  new  combinations  of  drugs,  that  may  have  been  sug- 
gested by  the  exigencies  of  a  special  case,  as  well  as  incompati- 
bilities, methods  of  administration,  and  other  matters  in  which  the 
physician  must  in  greater  or  less  degree  depend  upon  the  special 
knowledge,  training  and  skill  of  the  pharmacist.  In  return,  I  have 
been  complimented  by  their  inquiries  on  matters  concerning  which 
I  may  have  had  special  information  of  use  to  them.  There  is  no 
reason  why  this  pleasant  relation  of  confidence  and  mutual  assistance 
should  not  exist  between  all  physicians  and  all  pharmacists  worthy 
of  the  name. 
Certainly  nothing  will  do  more  to  extend  it  and  to  advance  the 
best  interests  of  the  profession  of  pharmacy  than  the  formation  of 
such  an  association  as  you  are  now  about  to  form  in  Philadelphia, 
and  the  determination  on  the  part  of  practising  pharmacists  to 
maintain  a  high  professional  level  as  scientific  men  and  to  resist  the 
conversion  of  their  professional  standards  into  trade  standards.  I  do 
not  intend  hereby  to  cast  any  slur  on  trade  or  tradesmen ;  I  honor 
both  and  admit  the  indebtedness  of  mankind  to  both ;  but  it  is 
a  fact  that  standards  differ.  The  standard  of  the  fiction-writer  is 
not,  or  ought  not  to  be,  the  standard  of  the  medical  author  and  the 
standard  of  trade,  "  buy  cheap  and  sell  dear,"  is  not  and  ought  not 
to  be  the  standard  of  the  practising  apothecary.  And  here  I  may 
touch  upon  a  personal  and  practical  matter  concerning  the  ability 
of  the  physician  to  know  the  pharmacist  as  distinguished  from  the 
drug-and-soap-seller.  It  is  impossible  for  every  physician  to  know 
every  pharmacist  or  even  to  know  who  is  in  charge  of  the  prescription 
desk  at  a  certain  drug  store.  Frequently  I  am  asked  "  Shall  we  take 
this  prescription  to  so-and-so  at  the  corner  or  shall  we  take  it  down- 
