642  Half  Century  of  Amer.  Pharmacy.  \Amd^m^m- 
dreaming  that  within  a  half  century  they  would  command  the  at- 
tention of  Prohibition  officials.  Hypodermic  medication  was  an  entire 
novelty  that  was  much  discussed  in  the  journals  of  half  a  century 
ago,  and  it  is  obvious  that  serum  medication  was  unknown ;  in  fact 
the  word  "antiseptic"  was  used  but  seldom  and  "the  new  germ 
theory  of  disease"  was  the  subject  of  an  address  before  the  British 
Association  in  1870. 
As  to  drugs,  eucalyptus  was  a  novelty;  while  cascara-sagrada 
was  unknown;  strophantus  was  of  interest  only  as  an  African 
arrow  poison.  In  the  chemical  field,  among  the  "new  medicines"  we 
find  chloral,  phenolsulphates  and  potassium  permangate.  The  Ger- 
man tar  barrel  had  not  yet  started  to  turn  out  antipyretics  and 
hypnotics  and  antiseptics  for  the  healing  of  nations  and  for  the 
filling  of  German  purses.  Phenol,  of  course,  was  used,  the  famous 
brand  of  that  time  being  that  of  the  English  house  of  Calvert,  who 
brought  forth  their  first  pure  product  in  1863. 
Medical  thought  of  half  a  century  since  was  immensely  dif- 
ferent from  that  of  today.   With  the  germ  theory  in  its  infancy,  -with 
antisepsis  merely  a  matter  of  chance,  with  toxins  and  antitoxins  un- 
known, the  physician  had  to  depend  upon  drugs  and  chemicals  and 
that,  it  must  be  admitted,  in  a  rather  hit  or  miss  fashion.  Homoeo- 
apthy  was  under  serious  discussion,  both  in  the  English  and  Ameri- 
can pharmaceutical  press ;  since  it  was  viewed  both  by  the  regular 
physician  and  by  the  apothecary  with  a  feeling  akin  to  alarm.  The 
Hahnemannian  school  has  exerted  considerable  influence,  although 
not  in  the  way  that  was  anticipated  in  187 1.    It  had  its  part  in 
turning  physicians  of  the  regular  school  from  the  nauseatingly  bit- 
ter mixtures  of  those  days  to  more  palatable  preparations ;  it  had 
its  effect  in  persuading  the  old  line  medical  men  that  reasonably 
small  doses  frequently  repeated  are  often  of  more  service  than  the 
occasional  administration  of  heroic  doses ;  it  may  have  inspired  the 
therapeutic  nihilism  of  the  ultra-modern  teachers  of  medicine;  a 
philosophy  the  logical  sequences  of  which  are  the  healing  cults  such 
as  Eddyism. 
Whatever  its  influence  upon  the  regular  practice  of  medicine, 
homoeopathy  has  had  a  decided  effect  upon  the  practice  of  pharm- 
acy. Practitioners  of  the  regular  school,  feeling  the  competition  of 
the  homoeopathic  physician  with  his  satchel  of  sugar  pills,  began 
dispensing  instead  of  writing  prescriptions.    The  tablet  industry,  in 
