454 
A  Bounden  Duty. 
5  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
\       July,  1921. 
The  resolution  does  not  bear  a  keen  dissection,  and,  except  for 
a  high-sounding  note  of  pseudo-altruism,  there  is  nothing  in  it  that 
savors  of  worthiness.  That  the  Pennsylvania  Pharmaceutical  Asso- 
ciation adopted  such  a  creed  is  no  unusual  compliment  to  that  usually 
carefully  conducted  body,  except  as  we  may  look  upon  its  adoption 
as  having  been  nasty  and  without  deliberation.  The  editorial  re- 
ferred to  adeptly  sums  up  our  criticism  of  this  poorly  constructed 
resolution  in  the  following  statements : 
"It  is  inconceivable  that  anywhere  in  these  United  States,  it 
should  not  be  recognized  that  the  Eighteenth  Amendment  prohibited 
the  manufacture,  sale,  transportation,  importation  or  exportation  of 
intoxicating  liquors ;  that  this  and  the  Enforcement  Act  have  outlawed 
'the  business  of  the  saloon.'  It  is  incomprehensible  that  a  deliberate 
body,  such  as  a  pharmaceutical  association  is  supposed  to  be,  would 
now  resolute  about  a  business  that  the  will  of  the  people  and  the 
laws  of  the  land  had  outlawed  and  even  more  so  that  they  would  even 
suggest  that  such  a  disreputable  business  was  to  be  by  the  'Govern- 
ment' 'forced'  upon  the  retail  druggist. 
"The  Volstead  Act  recognizes  that  the  use  of  alcoholic  liquors 
is  necessary  for  the  extraction,  solution  and  preservation  of  medicinal 
preparation  and  rightly  provides  the  means  by  which  the  druggist 
may  obtain  the  supplies  required  for  such  uses.  Further,  that  at 
times,  certain  distilled  spirits  and  wines  are  considered  by  the  attend- 
ing physician  as  a  therapeutic  necessity,  and  it  very  carefully  pre- 
scribes methods  by  which  the  physician  may  issue  prescriptions  for 
these  in  limited  quantities,  and  then  very  rightly  considering  that 
they  are  medicines  directs  that  these  shall  be  filled  only  through  a 
pharmacist  'duly  licensed  under  the  laws  of  his  State  to  compound 
and  dispense  medicine  prescribed  by  a  duly  licensed  physician/  Is  it 
not  the  legitimate  duty  of  the'  licensed  pharmacist  and  of  no  one  else 
to  dispense  medicines  ?  Is  not  this  the  very  basic  principle  that  has 
justified  the  enactment  of  pharmacy  laws  for  the  protection  of  the 
public  against  promiscuous  and  incompetent  dispensing? 
"This  is  an  irrefutable  statement  of  the  law  and  the  facts,  and 
no  perversion  will  justify  an  assertion  or  even  an  intimation  that  'the 
Government'  is  desirous  of  providing  for  a  continuation  of  'the  out- 
lawed business  of  the  saloon,'  or  of  'forcing  it  upon  the  retail  drug- 
gist.' 
"After  all,  the  Mosaic  injunction  is  a  safe  and  worthy  advice 
for  pharmacists  to  follow : 
"  'According  to  the  sentence  of  the  law  which  they  shall  teach 
thee,  and  according  to  the  judgment  which  they  shall  tell  thee,  thou 
shalt  do;  thou  shalt  not  decline  from  the  sentence  which  they  shall 
shew  thee,  to  the  light  hand,  nor  to  the  left.'  (Deut.  17 :  12.)" 
