320 
Pharmacy  in  Austria. 
f  Am.  Jour.  Pharw.. 
t    July  1,1871. 
consequence  is,  that  prescriptions  are  often  sent  many  miles  to  the 
distant  shop  ;  and  of  what  use,  it  is  asked,  are  the  undeserving  300 
or  400  places  on  the  way  ? 
In  regard  to  France,  M.  Dorvault,  Director  of  the  Pharmacie  Gen- 
trale  at  Paris,  is  quoted,  who  said,  "  If  the  pharmacists  are  allowed 
to  multiply  without  limitation,  and  to  enter  into  competition  as  keen; 
and  bitter  as  in  any  other  trade,  a  lamentable  falling  oiF  in  these 
establishments  must  be  the  consequence,  and  many  pharmacists  will 
be  forced  to  adopt  means  they  themselves  despise  to  gain  a  decent 
living." 
Next,  the  fixed  charges  in  dispensing,  regulated  b}^  the  State,  are 
discussed,  and  the  question  is  ventilated  which  system  is  most  advan- 
tageous to  the  public.  It  appears  the  principle  followed  in  the  scale 
of  prices  is  as  follows  : — Drugs,  if  sold  in  comparatively  large  quan- 
tities, are  charged  the  wholesale  price,  with  an  addition  of  25  per 
cent.,  and  in  small  quantities  v/ith  an  addition  of  50  per  cent.  Another 
charge  is  made  for  work,  bottles,  etc.,  so  that  the  price  of  a  medicine 
includes  four  or  five  items. 
To  compare  the  charges  in  Austria  with  those  made  in  England 
and  France,  the  prices  as  agreed  upon  by  the  Manchester  pharma- 
cists, and  copied  in  full  from  this  Journal  of  17th  December  last,  are 
given,  and  also  a  copy  of  a  tariff  from  M.  Dorvault's  work,  *  L'Offi- 
cine.'  The  result  of  this  comparison  is,  that  the  prices  are  in  the 
proportion  of  Austria  1,  France  2,  England  3,  or  the  French  charges 
for  medicines  are  twice  as  high,  the  English  three  times  as  high  as- 
the  Austrian. 
The  explanation  for  this  great  difference  the  petitioners  find  in  the 
fact  that,  after  all,  the  dispensing  business  is  fixed  within  certain 
limits,  and  that  the  number  of  pharmacies  in  France  and  England  se 
vastly  exceeds  the  real  demand,  that  each 'can  get  only  a  small  share, 
and  tries  to  make  up  by  higher  prices.  But  even  these  high  prices 
are  not  sufficient  to  ensure  the  existence  of  so  many  participators^ 
and  they  are  driven  to  sell  all  sorts  of  patent  and  proprietary  arti- 
cles. On  this  subject  the  Austrians  wax  very  warm  indeed.  They 
quote  words  of  the  celebrated  Professor  Boudet,  spoken  at  the  Phar- 
maceutical Congress  at  Paris  in  1867  :-"  You  high  and  mighty  patrons 
of  specialism,  do  not  barricade  yourselves  behind  sophisms,  which 
mislead  nobody.  You  have  made  slaves  of  your  colleagues  ;  you 
have  degraded  them  to  retailers  of  your  patent  medicines  ;  you  have 
