5^4  The  Needs  of  the  Council.  {AS^;£S!ff- 
THE  NEEDS  OF  THE  COUNCIL.1 
By  W.  A.  Puckner,  Chicago, 
Secretary  of  the  Council  on  Pharmacy  and  Chemistry  of  the  American 
Medical  Association. 
In  taking  up  the  discussion  of  "  The  Needs  of  the  Council,"  I  take 
it  for  granted  that  you  are  perfectly  familiar  with  the  conditions 
which  led  to  the  establishment  of  this  advisory  body,  the  Council  on 
Pharmacy  and  Chemistry,  by  the  American  Medical  Association, 
also  that  you  are  familiar  with  its  function  to  furnish  physicians  with 
reliable  information  in  regard  to  the  newer  and  proprietary  remedies, 
and  with  the  advantages  to  be  derived  from  the  work  of  the  Council 
by  all  those  interested  in  honest  medicine  and  pharmacy  and  in  the 
well-being  and  health  of  the  people. 
The  work  of  the  Council  may  well  be  divided  into  two  parts : 
First,  that  of  securing  information  in  regard  to  the  nature,  composi- 
tion and  value  of  medicine;  and,  second,  the  dissemination  of  this 
information.  Especially  in  the  first  task  are  pharmacists  in  a  posi- 
tion to  give  valuable  aid  to  the  Council. 
Pharmacists  have  long  been  familiar  with  the  various  phases  of 
the  deceit  and  fraud  practised  in  misleading  or  deceiving  the  medical 
profession,  to  the  detriment  of  both  patient  and  physician.  While 
many  instances  are  on  record  where  the  retail  pharmacist  has  given 
publicity  to  flagrant  cases  of  deception,  in  general  he  has  done  but 
little  to  check  these  practices,  or,  worse,  has  adopted  them  as  his 
own  to  some  extent.  This  is,  perhaps,  best  illustrated  by  the  very 
common  practice  of  selling  household  remedies,  the  so-called  "  non- 
secrets,"  under  a  "  pseudo  firm-name  ;  "  a  practice  firmly  established 
and  so  generally  adopted  that  the  wrong  connected  with  it  has  been 
lost  sight  of.  For  wrong  this  practice  is,  since  its  only  object  is  to 
hide  the  real  origin  of  the  article — to  deceive  the  purchaser. 
However,  the  pharmacist  is  not  to  be  blamed  for  the  conditions 
which  prevail.  As  a  rule  he  fought  for  legitimate  pharmacy  and 
only  after  he  realized  that  his  efforts  were  wasted,  while  those  of  the 
nostrum  promoter  appeared  to  receive  the  endorsement  of  physicians 
and  the  public,  did  he,  in  self-defence,  adopt  the  methods  of  the 
latter. 
As  just  stated,  there  are  many  instances  on  record  where  pharma- 
cists have  called  attention  to  flagrant  cases  of  deception,  through 
1  Read  before  the  Philadelphia  Branch  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Asso- 
ciation, November,  1906. 
