368 
The  New  Drugstore. 
JAm.  Jour.  Pharm. 
t     August,  1913. 
phone  have  increased  from  a  few  hundred  to  many  millions.  This, 
in  a  rough  way,  shows  the  ability  of  the  customer  to  choose  the 
things  he  wants,  and  the  source  from  which  to  obtain  his  supplies. 
The  consumer  has  moved  rapidly  from  the  country  to  the  city, 
in  turn  becoming  a  suburbanite,  and  now  he  is  going  back  to  the 
land  in  the  shape  of  a  new  farmer.  The  city  as  a  place  of  homes 
is  passing,  and  in  its  place  are  cliff  dwellers  in  apartment  houses, 
electric  railroads  and  subways. 
In  the  rural  counties  the  new  farmer  has  done  away  with  the 
candle,  the  wood  fire,  the  ox-cart  and  homespun  clothes.  His 
premises  are  electric-lighted  and  steam-heated;  he  carries  his  prod- 
ucts to  town  in  a  motor  car,  and  he  makes  his  purchases  with  the 
aid  of  the  telephone  and  the  parcel  post. 
The  New  Drug  Consumer  is  a  reader  and  a  thinker,  with  a  new 
mode  of  thought.  This  is  reflected  in  the  attitude  of  the  public 
mind  upon  problems  of  every  kind — progressive  legislation,  the 
tariff,  education,  religion,  public  and  personal  morals  and  upon 
ethical  standards. 
As  far  as  drugs  are  concerned,  the  average  man  of  to-day  has 
read  more  about  medicine  in  his  magazine  or  his  newspaper  than 
the  doctor  of  twenty  years  ago  learned  in  his  lifetime.  It  may  be 
for  the  good  or  for  the  ill  of  the  race  that  every  man  is  becoming 
his  own  physician,  but  the  facts  are  that  at  the  present  day  the 
man  whom  we  meet  on  the  street  carries  in  his  vest  pocket  a  bottle 
of  patent  medicine,  is  versed  in  bacteriology,  immunity,  steriliza- 
tion, hygiene,  sanitation,  diagnosis  and  treatment.  It  requires  a 
live  drug  clerk  to  cope  with  the  up-to-date  consumer. 
It  is  difficult  to  realize  the  rapid  transformation  that  may  take 
place  in  a  generation.  Changes  have  taken  place  in  those  elements 
which  are  directly  connected  with  the  drugstore,  namely,  medicine 
and  surgery.  The  evolution  in  these  arts  has  been  more  marked, 
more  rapid,  more  revolutionary  within  the  last  two  decades  than  in 
all  the  other  centuries  that  have  gone  before. 
The  New  Druggist,  who  no  longer  is  content  to  be  simply  the 
"  Doctor's  Cook,"  has  kept  pace  with  every  turn  of  the  art.  He 
has  kept  in  the  vanguard  of  the  progressing  age. 
There  has  come  a  new  humanity,  a  new  audience — a  newer, 
larger  consumer.  The  old  store  sold  only  bitters  and  cordials — 
castor  oil,  asafetida  and  pills — in  the  new  drugstore  can  be  found 
commodities  for  every  human  need. 
