Am  j™J%;rm  }   Pharmacists,  Physicians  and  Nostrums.  u 
confidence  than  is  felt  in  the  fallible  doctor  ;  or,  thirdly,  that  the 
public,  who  annually  spend  so  many  millions  of  dollars  more  for  nos- 
trums than  for  doctors,  must  greatly  lack  in  common  sense  and 
judgment. 
The  pharmacist,  as  far  as  the  nostrum  traffic  is  concerned,  is  but  a 
merchant  ;  he  occupies  a  neutral  ground,  and  cannot,  if  he  would, 
regulate  it.  His  personal  inclination  or  preference  has  just  as  little  to 
do  with  the  merits  or  demerits  of  nostrums  as  it  has  with  those  of  the 
doctor  ;  nor  have  pharmacists,  in  general,  any  influence  upon  the 
choice  of  the  public  between  either  of  them,  although  their  preferences 
as  well  as  material  interests  are  certainly  in  favor  of  the  latter  ;  and, 
moreover,  they  suffer  by  the  alleged  degeneration  of  their  profession 
into  a  mere  trade,  much  more  than  the  physicians  do,  or  than  is  gener- 
ally known.  It  is  not  in  their  power,  however,  to  change  the  law  of 
demand  and  supply,  nor  can  this  be  accomplished  by  statutes,  forbid- 
ding or  endeavoring  to  control  the  sale  and  use  of  nostrums,  or  the 
choice  of  remedies,  doctors,  or  methods  of  treatment,  by  the  people,  any 
more  than  it  is  possible  to  protect  the  community  in  that  way  from  the 
evidently  large  numbers  of  insufficiently  educated,  incompetent  "  and 
unskilled,  yet  regularly-graduated,  physicians,"*  nor  restrain  these  from 
experimenting  on  the  health  and  life  of  the  afflicted,  who,  in  many 
cases,  have  no  chance  to  obtain  an  approximately  correct  estimate  of 
the  qualification  of  the  physician  or  to  discriminate  between  the  edu- 
cated one  and  the  pretender,  and,  still  less,  have  any  means  of  detect- 
ing incompetency  and  malpractice  until,  perhaps,  it  is  too  late,  and  a 
valuable  life  has  been  sacrificed. f 
So  long  as  medicines  in  the  form  of  nostrums  and  specialties  are 
bought  and  used,  it  is,  no  doubt,  safer  that  they  should  at  least  pass 
through  the  hands  of  a  trade  which  is  competent  to  exercise  a  kind  of 
control  over  the  character  of  that  particular  class  of  ready-made  medi- 
cines. As  long  as  pharmacy  can  uphold  its  present  scope,  its  legitimate 
business  should  continue  to  embrace  the  dispensation  to  the  public  of 
all  those  products  of  nature,  manufacture  or  art,  which  serve  as  remedies 
or  are  used  for  sanitary  or  domestic  application,  no  matter  what  so-called 
school  of  medicine  employs  them,  or  in  what  shape  or  preparation  they 
*  Dr.  H.  C.  Wood,  Jr.,  "  Medical  Education  in  the  United  States/1  in  "  Lippin- 
cotfs  Magazine, 11  December,  1875,  P- 7°3  3  an(1  "Philadelphia  Medical  Times,11 
January  23d,  1875. 
f"  New  York  Daily  Times,11  July  17th,  1875. 
