AmM£?ri£i.arm'}     Pharmacy  Laws  and  Legislation.  251 
effective  antidotes.  It  contains  no  clause  exempting  physicians' 
prescriptions  from  the  law. 
Judge  Fiedler,  before  whom  the  hearing  was  had,  decided  in  favor 
of  the  defendant,  the  following  being  the  salient  points  of  his 
decision  : 
"  The  relation  between  the  druggist  and  his  customer  is  two-fold  : 
"  (1)  When  he  sells  an  article  purely  and  simply,  where  his  pro- 
fessional skill  is  not  brought  into  account,  as,  for  example,  where  a 
customer  purchases  15  cents  worth  of  tincture  of  aconite.  In  this 
case  we  have  a  purely  commercial  transaction,  that  is,  a  sale,  and 
Section  4354-64  applies. 
"(2J  Where  a  customer  brings  a  prescription,  or,  as  in  our  case, 
the  prescription  is  left  by  the  physician,  and  the  customer  calls 
for  the  medicines,  a  different  relation  exists  between  the  parties 
in  this  latter  case.  There  are  the  three  parties  necessary,  the 
physician,  druggist  and  purchaser.  The  physician  examines  his 
patient  and  decides  what  shall  be  used — the  patient  has  no 
choice  in  the  matter  whatever — he  takes  what  is  given  him.  He 
relies  upon  the  skill  of  the  physician,  and,  having  received  his 
prescription,  he  relies  upon  the  druggist  to  follow  the  directions 
therein  set  forth.  He  must  have  confidence  in  the  ability  of  each 
of  them,  that  of  the  physician  to  diagnose  the  case  and  that  of  the 
druggist  to  execute  the  directions  of  the  physician  in  compounding 
and  dispensing  the  drugs,  chemicals  and  poisons  into  a  medicine. 
When  once  compounded  or  dispensed,  these  drugs,  chemicals  and 
poisons  lose  their  identity.  They  are  not  so  much  aconite,  mor- 
phine, alcohol,  water  or  whatever  the  ingredients  may  be ;  it  is  a 
medicine  and  nothing  but  a  medicine. 
"The  physician  must  be  the  best  judge  of  the  proper  remedy  and 
must  know  how  that  remedy  should  be  applied.  He  directs  the 
druggist  what  to  use  and  in  what  proportions,  and  he  tells  him  just 
how  that  compound  should  be  used.  It  is  an  extremely  delicate 
and  dangerous  operation,  and  any  variation,  even  in  the  slightest 
degree,  from  the  directions  so  given,  may,  and  in  most  cases  of  dan- 
gerous illness  undoubtedly  would,  prove  fatal.  In  the  case  before 
us  it  did  prove  fatal.  For  the  performance  of  this  service  the  drug- 
gist charges  as  any  other  professional.  This  is  no  more  a  sale  of 
that  medicine,  as  the  law  contemplates  a  sale,  than  it  is  a  sale  when 
a  lawyer  charges  his  client  for  writing  a  letter  or  a  contract.  His 
