178  Discussion  on  Pharmaceutical  Ethics.  {Am-AJSfwfm 
which  is  so  sharply  defined,  and  the  Greek1  «  charactera  epemballein 
tini,'  to  give  definite  shape,  form,  outline,  to  put  a  mark  upon, 
makes  clearer  the  meaning  so  beautifully  portrayed  by  the  essayist. 
It  is  to  put  in  the  hands  of  authority,  those  who  are  qualified,  the 
hammer  and  chisel,  the  power  with  which  to  do  away  with  the 
superfluous  and  bring  into  full  light  unmistakable,  clearly-outlined, 
well-defined  and  permanently- established  facts  or  truths.  To  build 
up  and  establish  a  definite  standard. 
"  Mr.  Beringer  referred  to  the  far-reaching  consequences  of  the 
Sea  of  Mysticism,  which  doubtless  was  contemporaneous  with  the 
origin  of  the  practice  of  medicine,  and  with  the  preparation  of  the 
means  used  for  the  cure  of  disease,  deformity  and  injury  prescribed 
by  practitioners. 
"  The  lay  mind,  in  those  early  days,  was  permeated  with  a  super- 
stition which  made  the  community  4  moldable '  to  the  whim  and 
direction — indeed,  the  control  by  the  practitioner  of  anybody  who 
relied  upon  him  for  a  cure.  The  same  superstition,  only  partially 
modernized,  rests  as  a  mantle  upon  the  laity  of  this  age,  and  this  it 
is  which  renders  the  public  gullible  by  the  methods  of  those  misrep- 
resentatives  of  the  professions  we  represent,  and  takes  shape  in  the 
form  of  the  nostrum  vender — both  the  manufacturer  and  the  seller. 
"  Indeed,  this  same  debased  and  unprincipled  commercialism  consti- 
tutes the  only  opposition  to  raise  the  standards  of  qualification,  and 
to  improve  and  render  more  efficient  the  methods  of  pharmaceutical 
and  medical  education. 
"  The  whole  matter,  therefore,  resolves  itself  into  the  one  simple 
fact,  and  that  is  the  establishment  and  requirement  of  higher  stand- 
ards of  educations  precedent  to  paralleling  qualification,  and  this 
must  be  specifically  moral,  as  well  as  mental  and  physical. 
"  As  I  sat  listening  to  Mr.  Beringer  and  heard  him  utter  a  fact, 
the  truth  of  which  cannot  be  denied,  '  that  quack  ?iostrums  are  pre- 
scribed by  a  large  percentage  of  the  practitioners  of  medicine]  I  felt  my 
ears  tingle  with  the  blush  of  shame,  because  I  recognized  that  this 
statement  was  true.  The  supply  largely  must  equal  the  demand, 
and  when  the  demand  is  of  a  character  to  have  eliminated  entirely 
this  sort  of  unprincipled  patronage,  pharmacy  will  no  longer  be 
encumbered  with  the  disgraceful  commercial  load,  nor  medicine 
suffer  the  blush  of  shame. 
~K.apa.KT 7] pa  eirefAf3a\\eiv  tivl. 
