12  Retail  Pharmacist  and  Pure  Drugs.  |A™; 
Jour.  Pharm. 
miarv,  1913. 
more,  in  spite  of  their  difficulties,  there  have  been  professional  phar- 
macists who  have  consistently  tried  to  handle  only  pure  drugs  and 
to  dispense  preparations  which  the  physician  would  find  to  be  effi- 
cient. 
W  hile  it  is  true  that  the  apothecary  is  dependent  in  some  meas- 
ure on  the  ability  and  integrity  of  the  large  dealer  from  whom  he 
purchases  his  supplies,  yet  he  attempts  to  check  in  a  measure  the 
articles  distributed  by  the  manufacturer,  recognizing  that  he  stands 
between  the  manufacturer  and  the  patient. 
Furthermore,  there  are  fortunately  a  number  of  factors  which 
are  making  it  easier  for  the  pharmacist  to  purchase  pure  drugs  and 
dispense  good  preparations.  These  are  the  enactment  and  enforce- 
ment of  drug  laws,  the  greater  interest  in  pharmaceutic  research, 
the  higher  standards  of  education  in  pharmacy  and  the  co-operation 
between  physicians  and  pharmacists. 
Finally,  I  may  say  that  while  the  pharmacist  is  a  purveyor  of 
articles  that  sell  at  so  much  per  pound  or  so  much  per  ounce,  the 
ethical  standards  which  guide  him  in  his  practice  must  he  as  strin- 
gent and  binding  as  those  which  guide  the  physician  in  his  practice. 
And  while  physicians  may  differ  as  to  diagnosis  and  as  to  the 
relative  value  of  medicines  and  while  every  patient  reacts  more  or 
less  variously  toward  different  medicines  and  toward  the  same  dose 
of  the  same  medicine,  the  standards  set  for  the  pharmacist  must 
be  those  of  uniformity  and  efficiency.  The  one  constant  in  the 
equation  must  be  the  uniform  quality  of  the  drug.  This  is  the 
position  we  are  endeavoring  to  live  up  to  in  our  teaching  and  in 
our  practice,  and  we  desire  every  possible  co-operation  on  the 
part  of  physicians  in  advancing  and  maintaining  this  standard. 
While  we  sometimes  feel  that  the  medical  profession  has  not  suffi- 
ciently understood  the  task  we  have  set  out  to  perform,  yet  we 
trust  that  the  physician  will  appreciate  that  the  pharmacist  realizes 
his  responsibility  and  recognizes  the  importance  of  fostering  the 
integrity  of  their  mutual  relations  if  the  best  results  in  the  interests 
of  the  public  health  are  to  be  achieved. 
