AmAugu8tjSS[m'}    Pennsylvania  Pharmaceutical  Association.  383 
Answer  to  Query  No.  23. 
By  W.  O.  Frailey. 
This  query,  which  asks  whether  the  pharmacist  has  sold  his  birth- 
right for  a  mess  of  pottage  in  furthering  the  sale  of  proprietary 
remedies,  is  answered  in  the  negative  by  the  author,  who  states  that 
his  views  have  been  modified  by  the  continued  and  largely  increas- 
ing habit  by  physicians  of  prescribing  sarsaparillas  and  other  speci- 
fics of  proprietary  manufacture  on  written  prescriptions.  He  calls 
attention  to  the  gigantic  accomplishments  of  the  N.A.R.D.  which 
has  enabled  the  retailer  to  negotiate  with  the  manufacturer  of  pro- 
prietaries for  honest  open  markets,  and  to  demand  protection  from 
demoralizing  influences. 
Answer  to  Query  No.  23. 
By  J.  Leyden  White. 
The  author  of  this  paper  has,  as  in  the  foregoing  case,  answered 
the  query  in  the  negative.  He  states  that  the  query  assumes  some- 
thing which  is  not  a  fact,  and  ingeniously  traces  the  first  proprietary 
remedy  to  Galen,  the  Father  of  Medicine,  bringing  the  subject  down 
through  the  succeeding  ages  to  the  present  time.  He  states 
that  the  average  physician  of  to-day  depends  very  little  upon  diag- 
nosis, but  goes  upon  the  principle  that  what  has  helped  ninety-nine 
out  of  a  hundred  similar  cases,  will  most  likely  help  the  hundred 
and  first.  In  considering  the  commercial  side  of  the  question,  he 
estimates  that  40  per  cent,  of  the  average  retail  pharmacist's  busi- 
ness is  in  patent  medicines,  that  if  these  were  abolished,  40  per 
cent,  of  the  retail  druggists  would  fail.  In  conclusion,  he  says 
that  the  query  is  born  of  a  temporary  condition  of  the  times,  that 
condition  arises  from  the  agitation  of  the  so-called  reformers  who 
are  trying  to  put  shackles  on  Father  Time,  trying  to  reverse  natural 
laws,  trying  to  change  progression  to  retrogression. 
Query  No.  23. 
By  George  M.  Beringer. 
The  author  handles  this  query  in  an  allegorical  manner  and  takes 
the  extreme  degree  in  stating  the  affirmative.  He  quotes  Mr.  Wil- 
liam C.  Alpers,  who  portrays  the  pharmacists  as  upon  the  raft  of 
commercialism  floating  toward  the  Niagara  of  annihilation,  and  states 
that  succor  and  safety  come  in  the  nature  ot  the  lifeline  of  profes- 
