THE  AMEEIOAN 
■ 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY 
JANUARY,  igij 
THE  RETAIL  PHARMACIST  AS  A  PURVE,Y©R  Of* 
PURE  DRUGS* 
Henry  'Kraemer,  Ph.D.,  Philadelphia. 
among  pharmacists  is  the  following :  "  I  don't  see  what  bigger 
thing  a  man  can  do  than  to  combine  pure,  clean,  unadulterated 
roots  and  barks  into  medicines  that  will  cool  fevers,  stop  chills 
and  purify  bad  blood.  The  doctors  may  be  all  right,  but  what 
are  they  going  to  do  if  we  men  behind  the  prescription  case  don't 
supply  them  with  unadulterated  drugs?"  This  seems  like  a  fair 
question  for  the  layman  to  ask  and  the  answer  to  it  would  seem 
a  simple  one,  involving  only  the  question  of  honesty  or 
integrity ;  but  we  know  that  the  problem  itself  is  much  broader, 
more  complicated  and  difficult  than  the  writer  implies,  not  only  on 
account  of  the  division  of  interest  and  responsibilities,  but  also 
on  account  of  the  inherent  difficulties  of  the  drug  problem  itself. 
That  the  ideals  of  the  reliable  pharmacist  are  not  surpassed  by 
those  of  the  harvester,  as  just  quoted,  is  shown  by  an  incident 
referred  to  by  Professor  Procter  in  his  address  to  the  graduating 
class  of  the  Philadelphia-  College  of  Pharmacy  in  1858. 2  The  in- 
cident occurred  in  New  York  and  related  to  a  friend  of  Professor 
*  Read  in  the  Symposium  on  Drug  Standards  in  the  Section  on  Phar- 
macology and  Therapeutics  of  the  American  Medical  Association,  at  the 
Sixty-Third  Annual  Session,  held  at  Atlantic  City,  June,  1912.  Reprinted 
from  Jour.  A.  M.  A.,  Nov.  2,  1912,  pp.  1599-1603. 
1  Porter,  Gene  Stratton :  The  Harvester,  p.  41,  Doubleday,  Page  &  Com- 
pany. 
3  Procter,  William :  Am.  Jour.  Pharm.,  1858,  xxx,  202. 
