km'j™*ilt£rm'}   Pharmacists,  Physicians  and  Nostrums.  13 
or  fraud.  On  the  other  hand,  as  already  stated,  it  should  fairly  be 
taken  into  consideration  that  the  nostrum-traffic  has  been  forced  upon 
him,  and  that  he,  as  a  rule,  takes  an  adverse  position,  only  supplying 
the  demand  ;  as  also,  that  the  pharmacist  has  no  right  to  influence  the 
choice  of  the  customer  between  the  physician — allopath  or  homoeopath 
— or  the  familiar  nostrum,  unless  called  upon  for  his  opinion. 
Moreover,  every  well-informed  person  knows  that  the  nostrum  traf- 
fic cannot  effectually  be  restrained  merely  by  the  favor  or  disfavor  of 
pharmacists  any  more  than  by  that  of  physicians,  and  that  the  use  of 
nostrums  is  by  no  means  confined  to  the  non-educated  portion  of  the 
community,  but  that  it  prevails  largely  among  the  wealthy  classes,  both 
at  home  and  abroad  ;  as  also,  that  among  the  patrons  of  this  class  of 
medicine,  as  the  prescription  file  of  the  drug  stores  throughout  the 
country  will  testifv,  may  be  numbered  not  a  few  physicians  of  good 
standing. 
But  when  we  come  to  the  bottom  of  the  question,  and  inquire  with- 
out bias  for  the  primary  cause  of  the  origin  and  great  success  of  the 
nostrums  in  our  country,  we  cannot  but  lay  a  very  great  part  of  it  at 
the  door  of  the  medical  profession  at  large,  or,  perhaps,  attribute  it, 
ultimately,  to  the  want  of  adequate  laws  for  the  regulation  of  the  meth- 
ods and  standard  of  medical  education  and  the  requisite  qualification  for 
admission  to  the  practice  of  medicine  by  physicians.  The  fact  is  that 
nostrums,  to  a  very  large  extent,  have  supplied  an  actual  want,  in  con- 
sequence of  lack  of  trustworthy  medical  aid  and  of  confidence,  on  the 
part  of  the  community,  in  the  qualification  of  a  large  number  of  physi- 
cians. This  want  has  opened  many  a  door  to  nostrums  in  preference 
to  the  doctor,  and  has  contributed  much  to  raise  this  traffic  to  its  pres- 
ent extent,  almost  exactly  in  proportion  with  the  increase  in  numbers 
and  the  decrease  in  qualification  and  public  trust  in  the  average  doctors, 
a  large  portion  of  whom  "  have  attained  and  still  acquire  their  training 
and  engage  in  practice  under  the  absurd  notion  that  a  medical  education 
can  be  acquired  in  two  winters,  and  in  many  cases,  even  without 
a  preliminary  grammar  school  education. "*  It  is  therefore  no  wonder 
that  in  the  choice  between  the  cure-all  nostrums,  or  the  pellet  and  drops 
of  the  homoeopath,  or  a  multitude  of  unqualified  practitioners,  not  to 
speak  of  the  pretenders  and  impostors,  the  public  frequently  give  pref- 
erence or  a  first  trial  to  the  harmless  sugar  pellet  or  the  familiar  nostrum, 
and  that  two-thirds  of  the  entire  amount  of  drugs  and  medicines  annually 
consumed  in  our  country,  are  bought  and  used  in  the  form  of  nostrums. 
*Dr.  H.  C.  Wood,  Jr.,  "  Lippincott's  Magazine,"  December,  1875,  P-  7°5- 
