284  Progress  in  Pharmacy.  {^mz*y?nZ'v^m' 
simply  a  forerunner  of  the  general  adoption  of  the  same  practice  by 
all  manufacturers. 
Proprietaries  in  Great  Britain. — Peter  MacEwan,  F.C.S.,  pharma- 
ceutical chemist,  in  an  address  before  the  Western  Chemists'  Associa- 
tion, London, on  the  question — Are  British  pharmacists  decadent? — 
in  speaking  of  the  dispensing  of  to-day,  enumerated  an  analysis  of  a 
total  of  1,728  prescriptions  from  twenty-eight  different  sources.  Of 
these,  178,  or  a  trifle  over  10  per  cent.,  included  proprietary  reme- 
dies. The  lowest  average  was  2  per  cent,  and  the  highest  74  per 
cent.  The  latter  was,  however,  exceptional,  and  the  majority  of  the 
contributors  expressed  their  satisfaction  at  the  fact  that  the  proprie- 
taries came  out  lower  than  they  had  expected. 
The  comments  and  opinions  of  some  of  these  correspondents  are 
not  alone  interesting,  but  also  instructive.  Mr.  E.  Saville  Peck, 
of  Cambridge,  says:  "  There  appear  to  be  fewer  proprietary  articles 
than  usual.  I  maintain  that  when  a  physician  who  has  acquired 
and  retained  the  art  of  prescribing  can  rely  upon  the  ability  and  the 
conscientiousness  of  the  pharmacist,  he  is  generally  inclined  towards 
official  preparations.  I  believe  that  one  of  the  main  factors  in  the 
development  of  the  custom  to  order  "  branded  drugs  "  has  been  the 
inefficiency  of  many  pharmacists,  or  rather  I  should  say  chemists  or 
pseudo-chemists." 
Mr.  Harold  Wyatt,  Liverpool,  says:  "  The  prescribing  of  special 
preparations,  outside  those  of  the  Pharmacopoeia,  is  an  evil  which 
I  firmly  believe  is  to  be  laid  at  the  door  of  the  pharmacist 
himself  rather  than  at  that  of  the  medical  man.  Where  the 
pharmacist  is  ready  to  assist  the  doctor  with  useful  and  practical 
suggestions  in  which  his  acquaintance  with  pharmacopceial  drugs, 
galenicals  and  methods  is  evident,  it  will  be  invariably  seen  that  the 
doctor  is  ready  and  even  anxious  to  order  official  preparations  in- 
stead of  secret  compounds  of  hypothetical  value."  (Chem.  and  Drug. , 
March,  1905,  p.  437.) 
Among  the  more  interesting  publications  relating  to  pharmacy 
that  have  recently  appeared,  the  General  Index  to  Vols.  I  to  L  of  the 
Proceedings  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association  is  by  far  the 
most  interesting  and  most  valuable.  If,  as  has  been  frequently  as- 
serted, the  knowing  how  or  where  to  obtain  information  is  a  fair 
alternative  for  the  actual  possession  of  the  information,  then  this 
volume  should  certainly  occupy  a  prominent  place  with  the  usual 
books  of  reference  on  the  shelves  of  the  up-to-date  apothecary. 
