Am'jJu°iy?i906arm"}    American  Pharmaceutical  Association.  329 
Thus  we  both,  practically,  confront  one  proposition — the  extermi- 
nation of  commercialism  in  its  bad  sense,  because  it  constitutes  the 
one  prominent  factor  and  power  which  seriously  obstructs  progress, 
and  postpones  the  fulfilment  of  the  highest  achievements  possible 
to  our  professions. 
It  is  this  concrete  fact,  viewed  from  the  practical  standpoint,  which 
finds  this  body  organizing  to-night,  and  which  constitutes  a  nucleus 
composed  of  men  of  character  and  integrity,  disinterestedly  interested 
in  the  welfare  of  man  and  formed  for  the  purpose  which  this  honor- 
able body  has  so  well  expressed.  As  the  huge  problem  to  be  solved 
is  contemplated,  it  may,  perhaps,  seem  almost  hopeless,  but  rest 
assured,  gentlemen,  that  the  time  is  most  opportune  for  initiatory 
action  in  the  direction  assumed  this  night  to  be  successfully  launched. 
The  public  mind,  as  the  people  are  being  educated,  is  becoming 
keenly  alive  to  the  importance  to  them  of  the  questions  involved ! 
The  medical  profession  is  surely  emerging  from  its  commercial 
rottenness,  and  physicians,  competent  to  fulfil  their  responsible 
trusts,  are  at  last  being  trained,  who,  in  the  very  near  future,  will  be 
able  to  properly  formulate  and  write  a  prescription,  and  intelligently 
and  skilfully  employ  remedial  agencies  and  all  necessary  means  in 
the  treatment  of  disease.  They  will  also  be  capable  of  knowing,  as 
a  large  percentage  now  in  practice,  and  because  of  the  above  indi- 
cated reason,  unfortunately  do  not,  whether  pharmaceutists  correctly 
compound  the  medicaments  for  which  a  prescription  calls,  and  also 
whether  the  patients  are  taking  them. 
It  is  the  inability  of  the  profession  to  recognize  these  latter  points 
that  affords  the  tempting  ground  for  the  unprincipled  pharmacist  to 
foist  upon  the  prescribing  physician  and  his  patient  any  and  every- 
thing, no  matter  how  inert,  as  well  as  to  substitute,  without  fear  of 
detection,  cheaper  and  worthless  medicaments  for  those  prescribed. 
This  condition  of  things,  in  the  future,  gentlemen,  can  no,  longer 
obtain!  Patent  medicines,  nostrums,  etc.,  from  the  higher  and 
intellectual  plane  briefly  outlined,  will,  by  the  practitioners  soon  to 
be,  naturally  be  discarded.  Law  will  punish  the  hitherto  unbridled 
fraud  and  swindle,  and,  if  the  commendable  initiatory  action  of  this 
evening  flourishes,  as  it  must  if  properly  cultivated,  the  dealer  and 
seller  of  these  concoctions  will  be  regarded,  by  the  laity  as  well  as 
the  profession,  as  a  living  disgrace  and  menace  to  the  public  good. 
The  members  of  the  two  professions  we  represent  who  are  not  in 
