422  Secret — Private — Personal 
Prof.  A.  Fennel  made  himself  a  reputation,  as  a  pharmacist, 
second  to  none  anywhere.  One  of  the  specialties  worked  out  by 
him  for  Dr.  Williams,  the  famous  leader  of  American  eye  special- 
ists, was  brown  citrine  ointment.3  Dr.  Williams  knew  from  experi- 
ence that,  as  made  by  Prof.  Fennel,  the  substance,  which  for  use  in 
the  eye  needs  be  unquestioned,  was  exactly  as  it  should  be.  And 
yet,  were  not  innuendoes  cast  at  those  two  conspicuous  leaders  in 
their  respective  professions?  The  ethics  of  the  levelers  down  were 
being  broken  by  this  "  partiality."  Everyone  knew  that  no  risk  was 
run  when  the  label  of  the  talented  pharmacist,  A.  Fennel,  was  on 
that  jar.4 
Prof.  Wm.  B.  Chapman,  a  pharmaceutical  educator,  experi- 
mented (1864-1865),  in  his  modest  little  apothecary  shop,  until  his 
pin-dipped  gelatin  capsules,  pioneers  at  that  date,  attained  a  well- 
earned  professional  reputation,  Cincinnati  over.  And  yet.  scarcely 
did  a  physician  dare  to  specify  "  Chapman  "  on  a  prescription.  At 
that  date  suppositories  were  made  by  pouring  medicated  cocoa 
butter  into  paper  cones,  each  resting  in  the  mouth  of  a  wide-mouth 
vial.  Chapman  devised  a  metal  mould,  two  sizes,  one  capable  of 
making  twelve,  the  other  six  suppositories.  He  experimented  with 
excipients  until  he  determined  not  only  that  an  addition  of  ten  per 
cent,  of  Japan  wax  improved  the  cocoa  butter,  but  that  different 
proportions  were  desirable  with  different  drug  admixtures.  A 
great  study  did  he  make  of  suppository  problems  and  distinction 
necessities. 
Here,  too,  prevailing  ethics  tended  to  crush  the  personality  of 
him  who  knezv  in  pharmacy,  by  right  of  discovery  and  of  persistent 
thought  and  experimentation,  care  and  effort.  Wrong  was  it  for 
any  but  the  most  independent  physician  to  give  personal  recognition 
to  this  man's  distinctive  qualification,  in  this  specialty  he  had  devel- 
oped. Standing  head  and  shoulders  above  all  others  in  this  field, 
for  Chapman  to  have  advertised  either  his  gelatin  capsules  or  his 
suppositories  made  by  means  of  a  mould  he  had  devised,  would 
have  been  to  damn  him  ethically.    In  the  case  of  this  exemplary 
3  In  this  cod  liver  oil  replaced  neats-foot  oil  (U.  S.  P.  1850),  then  official 
in  citrine  ointment. 
4  Indeed,  that  fair-minded  pharmacists  recognized  the  justice  of  the  case 
is  evident,  because  "  Gordon,"  with  whom  this  writer  was  an  apprentice, 
purchased  the  preparation  from  "Fennel,"  in  order  that  Dr.  Williams  might 
have  no  reason  for  complaint. 
f  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
V        July,  1919. 
