AmAp°rii?i&o5!rm'}        Ethical  Pharmaceutical  Practice.  159 
waiting  for  the  prescription  to  relieve  that  dreadful  sick  headache. 
We  may  thrust  upon  the  aching  heart  of  the  languishing  little 
one's  parent,  the  titter  and  nonsense  of  the  soda-water  girl 
and  dude,  while  he  patiently  waits  for  the  hope-giving  potion. 
These  are  personal  privileges,  the  right  to  exercise  which  cannot 
be  disputed,  however  much  the  policy  may  be  questioned. 
We  cannot,  however,  as  fair-minded,  intelligent  persons,  knowing 
how  difficult  it  is  for  the  learned  and  skilled  physicians  to  properly 
diagnose  and  treat  diseases,  undertake  this  service,  even  if  the  fair 
law  of  reciprocity  does  not  appeal  to  us.  And  more,  we  cannot  and 
must  not,  kno\ving,  as  we  do,  as  we  are  trained  to  know,  the  absurd 
claims,  the  falseness,  the  impudence  of  quackery,  of  quack  medicines, 
"  patent  medicines,"  if  you  will,  lend  our  services,  our  vocations,  to 
their  imposition  upon,  as  to  them,  a  poorly-informed,  a  credulous,  a 
long-suffering  public.  Nor  should  we  lend  our  associations  and  our 
journals  to  their  pernicious  influence.  They  are  not  worth  it,  even 
in  dollars  and  cents,  and  no  amount  of  organized  work  or  effort  will 
ever  make  them  worthy  the  recognition  of  so  useful,  so  honorable  a 
vocation  as  is  our  own. 
In  the  light  of  all  I  have  ventured  to  thrust  upon  you,  and  in  the 
better  light  of  your  own  conclusions,  I  would  like  to  question  as 
follows : 
(1)  Are  not  pharmaceutical  ethics  and  the  ethics  of  all  other  use- 
ful vocations  built  upon  exactly  the  same  foundations,  and  are  they 
not  quickened  by  exactly  the  same  spirit  ? 
(2)  Are  not  the  ethics  of  the  pharmacist  touching  himself  per- 
sonally, his  fellows,  medical  men  and  his  customers,  the  ethics  of 
the  man,  of  humanity,  the  gentleman  of  honor  and  the  accepted 
citizen  of  a  Christianized  community  ?    And — 
(3)  Does  it  not  appear  that  when  the  pharmacist  has  become 
ethical,  he  may  become,  in  fact,  has  become,  very  nearly  professional? 
It  may  be  asked  :  Why  should  we  be  subservient  to  these  laws  ? 
The  answer  is  simple  :  it  is  because  they  are  the  laws  of  right,  of 
truth  and  of  justice.  Even  though  you  may  have  a  birthright  in 
the  Kingdom,  that  birrhright  cannot  be  maintained  except  by 
obeying  the  laws.  Remember,  entree  into  even  the  smallest  social 
coterie  is  through  and  by  its  laws  and  affiliation  therein,  is  contin- 
ued only  so  long  as  these  laws  are  obeyed,  which,  to  obey,  you  must 
know  and  understand.    While  so  great  an  ethical  authority  as 
