572 
EDITORIAL. 
to  deal  with  the  matter,  it  is  a  question  whether  any  other  protection  is 
needed.  You  may  say  ethics  shall  do  what  the  law  does  not,  and  so  it  should 
in  cases  too  reBned  for  the  law  to  deal  with  ;  but  here  the  law  does  operate." 
From  the  foregoing  it  is  clear  that  while  no  one  is  justified  in  the  fraudulent 
imitation  of  a  patent  right,  either  in  or  out  of  the  pale  of  pharmacy,  yet  no 
pharmaceutist  can  claim  the  exclusive  manufacture  of  any  special  article  in 
perpetuity,  simply  because  a  particular  mode  of  working  originally  suggested 
itself  to  his  miod.  There  is  no  law  in  trade  or  ethics  to  prevent  a  man 
making  liquor  opii  to  the  best  of  his  ability,  any  more  than  in  the  case  of 
morphia  and  meconic  acid.  The  most  scrupulous  and  conscientious  chemist 
may  get  quinine  and  cinchonine  from  bark.  What  casuistry  shall  assign  an 
arbitrary  limit  forbidding  him  to  make  a  liquor?  The  whole  world  may  make 
magnesia,  light  and  heavy,  calcined  or  carbonate,  although  Battley  and 
Howard  and  Henry  have  been  beforehand  in  the  field.  Let  not  the  pharma- 
ceutist shrink  from  the  lawful  use  of  the  experience  and  labors  of  the  past ; 
which  is  no  reason  why  he  should  shrink  into  a  mere  copyist,  and  should  not, 
like  Columbus,  sail  out  of  the  beaten  track  in  search  of  land  not  hitherto 
discovered. 
There  is  a  major  ethical  consideration  that  can  only  be  treated  in  a  minor 
key — perfect  civility  to,  and  careful  attention  to  the  smallest  wants  of  the 
poorest  customer — a  civility  that  should  be  expressed  by  words  and  manner. 
The  ethics  of  civility  to  rich  customers  need  scarcely  be  discussed  ;  in  that 
case,  for  e'hics,  read  advantage. 
Our  American  brethren  have  taken  the  lead  in  drawing  up  a  regular  Code 
of  Ethics.  You  will  find  the  document  in  the  "  Pharmaceutical  Journal," 
Vol.  xii.  p.  369. 
They  have  also,  I  think,  been  most  successful  in  giving  directions  about  the 
last  topic  I  have  to  mention  in  connection  with  shop  ethics — the  mutual  rela- 
tion between  the  master  and  the  assistant. 
For  general  rules  I  refer  you  to  a  paper  republished  in  our  Journal,  called 
the  "Pharmaceutist  as  a  Merchant,"  (vol.  vi.  p.  655,  second  series).  The  idea 
is  admirable,  and  the  literary  execution  quite  equal  to  the  design. 
Mr.  Frederick  Stearns,  the  author,  seems  to  have  steered  most  successfully 
between  the  Scylla  of  the  high  and  dry,  and  the  Charybdis  of  the  goody-good. 
I  refer  you  also  to  some  excellent  rules  published  at  the  end  of  Parrish's 
"Practical  Pharmacy;"  it  contains  one  difficult  proposition,  p.  676: — 
"Second  General  Regulation  of  the  Store.  During  business  hours  all 
hands  must  be  on  their  feet." 
Rule  XIII.  is  beyond  our  present  standard.  "Every  apprentice  will  be  ex- 
pected to  become  a  graduate  of  the  College  of  Pharmacy,  and  will  be  fur- 
nished with  tickets  of  the  College,  and  every  opportunity  for  availing  himself 
of  the  honor  of  the  degree  of  that  institution."  I  do  not  feel  called  upon  to 
dilate  upon  this  question.  There  is  such  a  wide  difference  in  individual 
character,  that  special  rules  seem  to  be  impossible.  After  all,  we  shall 
scarcely  get  further  than  the  inspired  direction,  "  He  .that  ruleth  with  dili- 
gence."* One  point  I  am  compelled  to  notice,  that  ethics  concern  the  assist- 
ant quite  as  much  as  they  do  the  master.  I  have  no  intention  of  adding  to  the 
already  hard  position  of  the  former  by  harsh  remarks,  but  I  say  deliberately 
that  neither  our  current  literature,  nor  the  general  tone  of  sentiment  ex- 
pressed in  private,  bears  sufficient  trace  of  the  recognition  that  a  code  of  ethics 
extends  beyond  the  master.  Let  the  assistant  feel  that  he  has  apart  to  play,  just 
*  It  is  constantly  overlooked  that  both  master  and  man  are  overruled  by  an  exacting  public,  and 
the  public  by  an  equally  exacting  master — the  habits  and  customs  of  society. 
Young  men,  while  resisting  the  orders  and  regulations  of  their  employers,  are  apt  to  overlook 
the  circumstance,  that  the  regulations  have  been  deliberately  and  carefully  framed  to  meet  the 
exigencies  of  business  long  before  they  sold  their  labor  for  a  salary ;  hence  the  antagonism  be- 
tween master  and  man,  and  the  shipwreck  of  sound  morality. 
Young  men  complain  of  the  little  time  the  business  affords  for  reading  :  "  where  there  is  a  will 
there  is  a  way ;"  let  them  employ  that  little  time  in  reading  wholesome  standard  works  of  re- 
ligion, morality,  and  science,  and  the  standard  of  ethics  would  soon  be  raised  above  petty  conside- 
rations arising  out  of  the  details  of  business. — Note  contributed  by  Mr.  Deane. 
