Am-  Jour.  Pharm.  "I 
April,  1888.  j" 
Editorial, 
221 
and  J.  W.  Holland,  Philadelphia.  This  Committee  had  a  consultation  with 
the  pharmacists,  and  on  the  following  day  presented  a  report  embodying  a 
series  of  resolutions,  which,  after  being  shghtly  amended,  were  adopted  as 
follows : 
Whereas,  The  prescribing  of  proprietary  and  copyrighted  medicines  has 
become  an  evil,  whose  tendency  is  to  create  a  spirit  of  indifference  among 
medical  practitioners  to  the  claims  of  true  and  legitimate  therapeutics; 
and 
Whereas,  The  practice  of  prescribing  such  medicines  is  an  unmitigated 
evil,  and  an  injury  to  the  members  of  the  medical  profession,  and  opposed 
to  the  code  of  medical  ethics  ;  therefore 
Resolved,  That  this  Society  expresses  its  hearty  approval  of  the  resolutions 
presented  by  the  Pennsylvania  Pharmaceutical  Association,  recommending 
that  physicians  prescribe  officinal  medicines  in  preference  to  all  others,  and 
that  in  no  event  should  physicians  prescribe  preparations  the  practical 
working  formulae  of  which  are  not  clearly  published  or  made  known. 
Resolved  that  this  Society  appoint  a  committee  of  three  to  attend  the  next 
meeting  of  the  State  Pharmaceutical  Association,  to  represent  us  in  that 
body. 
The  committee  recommended  also  an  amendment  to  the  by-laws  for  the 
appointment  of  a  standing  Committee  on  Pharmacy,  "whose  duty  it  shall  be 
to  consider  all  matters  pertaining  to  Pharmacy,  and  who  shall  be  empowered 
to  represent  this  Society  in  conference  with  a  similar  committee  to  be  ap- 
pointed by  the  Pennsylvania  Pharmaceutical  Association  ;  they  shall  report 
annuallj^  the  result  of  their  joint  labors."  This  amendment  will  be  acted 
on  by  the  Medical  Society  at  its  next  annual  meeting  to  be  held  in  Philadel- 
phia, commencing  June  oth. 
The  committee  to  attend  the  meeting  of  the  Pharmaceutical  Association, 
which  will  be  held  in  Titusville,  commencing  June  12th,  consists  of  Drs.  W. 
G.  Weaver,  Wilkes-Barre ;  H.  A.  Kelly,  Philadelphia,  and  T.  J.  Young, 
Titusville. 
The  intercourse  which  has  thus  been  inaugurated  between  the  two  state 
societies  may,  and  we  trust  will,  be  productive  of  much  good  and  of  mutual 
profit.  The  frank  spirit  which  has  prompted  the  appointment  of  the  first 
committee,  the  manly  and  courteous  manner  in  which  the  committee  was 
received,  and  the  prompt  and  approving  action  by  the  Medical  Society 
augur  well  for  the  future  intercourse  between  the  two  societies  ;  and  we  have 
no  doubt  of  favorable  and  mutually  satisfactory  results,  if  questions  bearing 
on  the  relations  between  the  two  professions  should  come  up  before  com- 
mittees like  the  one  contemplated  by  the  above  amendment,  or  subsequently 
before  the  societies  after  the  frank  and  full  exchange  of  individual  views  of 
the  members  of  such  committees.  There  is  no  reason  whatever  why  simi- 
lar relations  could  not  be  cultivated  between  the  two  national  societies,  or  in 
fact  between  local  representative  societies  of  the  two  professions  ;  the  desir- 
ability and  practicability  of  such,  as  far  as  the  national  societies  are  con- 
cerned, have  been  pointed  out  by  Dr.  E.  Cutter  and  Prof.  Remington  (see 
February  number,  page  65)  ;  the  good  influence  of  such  a  course  in  com- 
bating acknowledged  evils  would  soon  be  felt. 
