A  ocfobS/iK"1*}        The  Duty  of  the  Pharmacist.  467 
Dr.  C,  all  prescribe  similar  combinations  for  symptoms  which  have 
in  many  cases  been  confided  to  him  by  the  patient  previous  to  con- 
sulting the  physician,  he  knows  just  as  much  about  prescribing  for 
such  symptoms  as  they  do. 
It  is«also  true  that  many  physicians  are  guilty  of  the  weakness  of 
falling  into  a  rut  in  prescribing,  having  a  stock  or  pet  form  of  pre- 
scription which  they  use  day  after  day  with  minor  variations,  and 
to  this  procedure  is  ascribed  the  origin  of  many  compound  prepara- 
tions which  afterward  become  officially  recognized,  as  Dover's 
Powder,  Basham's  Mixture,  Donovan's  solution,  etc.,  and  in  some 
cases,  doubtless,  these  oft-repeated  prescriptions  have  been  taken 
up  and  exploited  as  proprietaries  or  nostrums  to  the  detriment  of 
both  professions. 
It  is  also  true  that  some  teachers  in  medical  colleges  are  faddists 
or  cranks  on  certain  combinations,  and  that  all  teachers  publish  in 
their  text-books  and  exhibit  in  their  lectures  typical  prescriptions 
for  illustrative  cases,  which  prescriptions  are  primarily  intended  for 
the  guidance  of  the  beginner  in  prescription  writing,  but  which  are 
too  often  used  as  written,  with  little  or  no  modification,  during  the 
entire  professional  career  of  the  student. 
In  a  recent  number  of  a  pharmaceutical  journal  was  published  a 
list  of  such  prescriptions,  to  which  were  appended  the  names  of  the 
prescribers,  most  of  whom  were  eminent  in  the  profession  of  medi- 
cine, together  with  the  name  of  the  disease  or  the  purpose  for  which 
the  combination  was  prescribed.  A  glance  at  some  of  them  will 
show  how  errors  may  thus  be  perpetuated,  and  harm  done  to  both 
medicine  and  pharmacy,  and  it  is  not  beyond  the  bounds  of  possi- 
bility that  some  nostrum  manufacturer  might  take  any  one  of  them 
and  put  it  upas  a  secret  preparation,  stating  with  entire  truthfulness 
that  it  had  been  used  and  advocated  by  a  prominent  member  of  the 
medical  profession  in  the  alleviation  or  cure  of  a  given  condition. 
There  is  one  phase  of  counter-prescribing,  however,  which  must 
be  unhesitatingly  and  emphatically  condemned,  i.  *?.,the  prescribing 
for  eruptive  symptoms  or  conditions  under  the  supposition  that  they 
are  merely  local.  Such  symptoms  in  many  cases  are  indicative  of 
contagious  disease,  and  ill  advised  or  irregular  treatment  by  an  inex- 
perienced person  may  easily  result  in  the  detention  or  even  to  the 
death  of  more  than  one  person. 
