382 
Pharmaceutical  Associations. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
July,  1895. 
George  J.  Seabury  was  elected  an  honorary  member.  A  number  of  dele- 
gates and  committees  reported,  and  then  one  whole  session  was  given  to  the  read- 
ing of  papers. 
C.  H.  La  Wall  read  a  paper  on  Commercial  Aloins  (see  page  367),  and  one 
on  Laboratory  Notes  on  Peroxide  of  Hydrogen,  Oil  of  Wintergreen  and  Oil  of 
Turpentine  (see  page  372). 
Papers  on  The  Sabbath  as  a  Day  of  Pest,  were  offered  by  C.  B.  Lowe,  D.  M. 
Krauser  and  Emile  Ott. 
C.  B.  Lowe  presented  a  paper  on  The  Pharmacy  Law  of  Pennsylvania  and  its 
Administration,  in  which  he  delicately  drew  attention  to  some  of  the  defects  in 
the  law,  as  Avell  as  weakness  in  the  past  administration.  C.  T.  George  in  dis- 
cussing the  paper  admitted  some  of  the  short-comings  of  the  Board  of  Pharm- 
acy, and  satisfactorily  explained  them.  It  was  evidently  the  prevailing  opinion 
that  the  members  of  the  Board  should  receive  more  money,  and  that  their  com- 
pensation should  come  directly  from  the  State  Treasury,  and  not  be  paid  by 
the  pharmacists  of  the  State  as  at  present. 
A  paper  by  Louis  Emanuel  was  read.  It  was  in  answer  to  query  No.  23  : 
How  may  the  Pharmacy  Law  be  Efficiently  Enforced  ? 
He  illustrated  some  of  the  difficulties  of  enforcing  the  law,  and  showed  that 
when  properly  enforced  it  would  protect  the  public  as  well  as  the  members  of 
the  pharmaceutical  profession. 
John  F.  Patton  read  an  interesting  paper  on  Tendencies.  After  numerous 
illustrations  of  the  tendency  of  the  human  race  in  general,  the  author  con- 
sidered the  tendency  of  the  pharmacist  in  particular,  as  follows  : 
The  present  status  of  pharmacy  is  that  of  evolution,  with  a  strong  tendency  to  eliminate 
the  pharmacist.  The  large  pharmaceutical  manufacturers,  with  their  wealth,  enterprise  and 
acknowledged  ability,  have  not  only  relieved  the  pharmacist  from  the  labor  of  making  his 
own  preparations,  but  they  have  instructed  the  physician  as  to  the  value  of  the  remedies,  and 
aided  him  in  his  practice  by  applying  the  same.  Ethically,  this  is  all  wrong  :  but  it  is 
business.  It  has  tended,  however,  to  the  degradation  of  the  profession,  and  reduced  the 
practice  of  medicine  to  a  mere  matter  of  consulting  manufacturers*  catalogues  and  price-lists, 
to  say  nothing  of  the  great  damage  it  has  done  to  legitimate  pharmacy.  Thus,  the  queer 
anomaly  is  presented  of  reversing  the  order  of  therapeutics,  by  fitting  the  disease  to  the 
remedy,  instead  of  the  medicine  to  the  disease. 
The  enterprise  of  the  manufacturer  does  not  stop  here.  We  observe  a  tendency  to  eliminate 
the  phj-sician  also.  For,  do  we  not  find  treatment  and  dosage,  with  other  information 
conducive  to  self-medication,  plainly  printed  on  their  packages'?  Having,  by  the  aid  of  the 
physician,  introduced  their  products  to  the  consumer,  they  would  now  instruct  the  latter  to 
do  without  the  services  of  the  former — a  case  of  base  ingratitude. 
A  paper  was  read  on  A  Glance  at  the  Contributions  of  Dr.  Priestly  to  Phar- 
Diaceutical  Science,  by  the  late  Mrs.  Susan  C.  McCay,  a  lineal  descendant  of  Dr. 
Priestly.    This  paper  is  of  considerable  historical  interest. 
A  Record  of  1,000  Poison  Sales  was  the  title  of  a  paper  by  Emile  Ott.  This 
gave  a  list  of  poisons  called  for  in  a  Philadelphia  store.  Laudanum  headed  the 
list,  having  been  called  for  284  times.  It  was  closely  followed  by  "Rough  on 
Rats,"  275  times,  and  Paris  green  245  times.  There  was  then  a  decided  drop  to 
corrosive  sublimate,  So  times.  A  total  of  41  articles  were  given,  representing 
1,038  sales.    A  large  number  were  called  for  but  once. 
The  remaining  papers  were:  A  Country  Drug  Store,  by  S.  H.  Hill;  Cata- 
loguing a  Drug  Store,  by  C.  B.  Lowe  ;  Percolating  Opium,  A  Tabulated 
