74  Relation  of  Pharmacists  and  Physicians.  {AFebJr0uarr'yPi9ao5m' 
sidered  permissible,  if  not  absolutely  correct,  fifty  years  ago  may  be, 
and  many  of  them  rightly  are,  considered  obsolete,  if  not  positively 
dangerous,  at  the  present  time. 
Broadly  speaking,  nostrums  may  be  classed  in  one  of  two  general 
groups,  (i)  Those  popularly  termed  patent  medicines,  and  properly 
consisting  of  all  medicinal  preparations  advertised  or  sold  directly 
to  the  lay  public,  and  (2)  those  preparations,  generally  known  as 
proprietary  remedies,  that  are  exploited  to,  or  through,  medical 
practitioners.  Preparations  belonging  to  either  of  these  two  divis- 
ions are  secret  preparations,  so  far  as  any  definite  knowledge,  by 
others  than  the  manufacturer,  of  their  composition  or  contents  is 
concerned.  In  addition  to  this,  the  claims  that  are  made  for  the 
efficiency  and  usefulness  of  these  various  preparations  are  neces- 
sarily more  or  less  misleading  to  a  large  number  of  people. 
To  appreciate  this  latter  statement  more  fully,  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  there  is  what  may  be  termed  a  psychological  element 
necessarily  connected  with  all  matters  medical.  For  instance,  an 
individual  suffering  with  some  real  or  supposed  complication  of  dis- 
eases will  invariably  take  a  different  view  of  a  verbose,  but  really 
meaningless,  statement  of  supposed  facts  than  one  who  is  positive 
that  he  is  neither  ill  nor  likely  to  be  ill  in  the  near  future. 
The  same  is  true  of  physicians.  The  man  who  has  had  a  wide 
and  varied  experience,  and  who  is  well  versed  in  the  rudiments  of 
drug  therapy,  will  take  an  entirely  different  view  of  the  problemati- 
cal claims  that  are  made  in  connection  with  a  secret  remedy  than 
the  one  who  has  had  little  or  no  experience  in  this  particular  line. 
Moreover,  the  results  obtained  by  a  man  of  the  latter  type  from  the 
use  of  a  nostrum,  are  usually  misleading  to  him,  and  through  him  to 
others,  from  the  fact  that  he  has  been  able  to  observe  only  the  fact 
whether  or  not  his  patient  improved,  or  seemed  to  improve,  under 
the  influence  of  a  certain  drug  or  compound,  forgetting  entirely  that 
there  may  be,  and  really  are,  dozens,  if  not  hundreds,  of  additional 
factors  that  may  and  do  contribute  towards  the  ultimate  result  in  any 
given  case.  After  all,  then,  it  is  simply  a  question  of  point  of  view,  or  of 
seeing  truth  as  we  are  able  to  recognize  it.  If  our  education  or  infor- 
mation is  such  that  we  can  get  above  the  facts  in  the  case,  and  review 
them  collectively  as  a  whole,  we  can  readily  form  a  satisfactory  and 
correct  opinion,  based  on  the  ultimate  result.  If,  however,  we  are  not 
in  a  position  to  command  this  necessary  broad  survey  of  the  sum 
