io  Pharmacists,  Physicians  and  Nostrums.  {Km'jltr;^m' 
there  by  absorption,  as  jervia.    We  have  elsewhere  (Micro  chemistry 
of  poisons)  cited  some  cases  in  which  we  recovered  veratria  from  the 
blood  of  animals  killed  with  the  commercial  alkaloid. 
Columbus,  O.,  Oct.  20th,  1875. 
THE  RELATIONS  OF  PHARMACISTS  TO  PHYSICANS  AND 
NOSTRUMS. 
BY  FREDERICK  HOFFMANN,  PH.  D. 
It  is  with  much  reluctance  that  I  have  accepted  an  invitation  to  pre- 
pare a  brief  rejoinder  to  recent  articles  in  some  medical  journals  on  the 
mutual  relation  of  physicians  and  pharmacists,  and  on  the  nostrum 
traffic,  which  more  or  less  bear  the  traditional  stamp  of  disregard  or 
misconception  of  the  real  relations  existing  between  these  two  comple- 
mentary professions  at  this  time,  when  the  rapid  strides  in  the  advance, 
as  well  as  in  the  application,  of  their  constituent  sciences  are  more  and 
more  shaping  their  true  scope  and  sphere  in  the  health  service. 
On  the  surface  of  these  articles  there  are  three  main  points  of  dis- 
pute, namely  :  the  sale  of  nostrums,  the  alleged  prescribing  by  phar- 
macists, and  "  the  propriety  for  physicians  of  sending  prescriptions. " 
1.  The  nostrum  traffic  has  attained  such  dimensions  that,  according 
to  reliable  statistics,*  two-thirds  of  the  total  quantity  of  medicines  an- 
nually consumed  in  the  United  States,  are  dispensed  in  the  form  of 
nostrums.  When  we  inquire  for  the  causes  of  this  remarkable  fact,  in  a 
country  which  can  boast  of  one  regular  practitioner  of  medicine  to 
every  600  inhabitants,  looking  aside  from  those  thinly-settled  regions 
whose  population  is  scattered  widely  apart,  where  medical  aid  cannot 
be  had  readily  and  at  all  seasons  of  the  year,  and  where  for  want  of 
recognized  family  medicines  or  generally  approved  formulas  for  house- 
hold remedies,  the  people  as  yet  have  recourse  largely  to  nostrums  ; 
there  are  three  alternatives  obvious  :  first,  that  a  large  number  of 
the  nostrums  really  possess  so  much  merit  and  have  secured  so  much 
credit,  as  to  offer,  in  all  ordinary  cases,  a  satisfactory  substitute  for 
average  medical  skill,  as  it  can  be  obtained  at  present  ;  or,  secondly, 
that  this  latter  is  largely  regarded  as  so  far  inferior  or  disproportionate 
in  price  to  the  actual  or  fancied  benefit  derived  from  nostrums,  that 
experience  and  fact  have  secured  for  the  "  infallible  "  cure-all  a  greater 
*"  Boston  Medical  and  Surgical  Journal,"  August,  18745  and  "Amer.  Journ. 
Pharm     September,  1874,  p.  445. 
