Am'ju°y,r"i9ih9a.rni"  )  Secret— Private— Personal.  423 
man,  such  misapplied  ethics,  applied  to  the  limit,  kept  him  ever  in 
commercial  shadows,  losing  to  him  finally  his  loved  pharmacy. 
Came  the  thought  to  this  writer,  in  a  final  visit  to  Prof.  Chapman's 
humble  home,  where  lay  this  man  of  science,  breathing  his  last — 
"  If  regularity  in  ethics  brings  to  such  as  he  neither  personal  oppor- 
tunity, professional  distinction,  nor  well-earned  home  comforts, 
such  ethics  is  a  misnomer.  Better  to  live  afar  from  the  Code,  con- 
tribute to  humanity  as  an  individual  privileged  to  give  or  not,  as 
seems  proper,  and  die  an  irregular.5 
Probably  each  reader  of  these  lines  engaged  in  prescription 
pharmacy  half  a  century  ago,  in  any  American  city,  can  testify  to 
incidents  paralleling  such  as  this,  incidents  bespeaking  the  wrong 
resulting  from  a  misapplied  code  aiming  to  elevate  the  many,  at  the 
expense  of  the  few. 
And  what  of  the  present?  Let  those  concerned  therein  speak. 
They  can  answer  the  question  as  to  how  recognition  is  now  given 
him  who,  in  enthusiasm,  devoted  years  to  the  study  of  the  pharma- 
cist's art,  as  contrasted  with  him  who  came  into  it  for  business  only, 
from  the  outside,  who  never  filled  a  prescription,  never  attended  a 
college  of  pharmacy  or  served  an  apprenticeship,  and  yet  blazes  his 
name  as  pharmacist,  close  to  his  "  cut  rate  "  sign,  and  as  the  law 
permits,  engages  a  "clerk."6 
A  Plea  for  Justice. — Is  this  writer  alone,  all  alone,  in  asking  that 
balanced  thought  be  given  the  shortcomings  of  this  great  ethical 
problem  that,  founded  on  past  altruistic  ideals  necessitated  by  de- 
plorable abuses,  stares  the  faces  of  those  who  to-day  enter  this  field 
to  study,  work,  sacrifice,  in  humanity's  behalf  ?  Is  it  possible  that 
the  young  man  who  seeks  to  qualify  himself  above  the  multitude 
indifferent  either  to  true  ethics  or  earned  service,  seeking  the  oppor- 
tunities given  by  our  colleges  of  pharmacy,  will  forever  be  denied 
the  personal  recognition  earned  thereby  ?  Is  he  forever  to  compete 
with  commercial  tradesmen — forever  to  be  denied  personal  recogni- 
tion, even  by  the  profession  of  medicine?    Is  he,  after  his  well- 
5  By  right  of  experience  do  I  write.  After  Dr.  Chapman  failed  in  busi- 
ness, for  two  years  he  was  "  head  clerk  "  of  Mr.  Gordon's  pharmacy.  Under 
him  an  apprentice  needed  no  incentive  to  master  his  art, — Dr.  Chapman  was 
an  enthusiast,  even  in  his  misfortunes. 
6  Too  well  this  writer  appreciates  that  "  cut  rate  "  signs  are  not  a  monop- 
oly of  the  pseudo-pharmacist.  Nor  are  extravagant  newspaper  advertise- 
ments restricted  to  untaught  physicians. 
