438 
International  Congresses. 
/  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
X  September,  1901. 
discussion  the  following  resolution  was  offered  by  a  committee  of 
five  and  adopted  : 
"That,  in  the  judgment  of  this  Congress,  the  educated  pharmacist  is  a 
natural  and  proper  expert  on  measures  for  public  health,  not  only  in  prevention 
of  food  adulteration,  but  in  the  inspection  of  water  supplies,  the  enforcement 
of  good  sewerage,  etc.  The  pharmacist,  by  virtue  of  his  profession,  is  the 
common  chemist  to  the  common  people." 
The  President  of  the  Congress  called  attention  to  one  important 
subject  of  the  programme,  namely,  the  influence  exerted  upon  the 
practice  of  pharmacy  by  the  introduction  of  chemicals  and  other 
medicinal  substances  controlled  or  limited  by  patents,  copyrights, 
trademarks  or  other  legal  restrictions. 
Should  such  limitations  as  foster  monopoly  in  the  manufacture 
and  sale  of  such  medicinally  used  products  be  removed  in  the  in- 
terest of  the  public  good  ? — The  fact  was,  as  shown  by  Mr.  Wm.  Bode- 
mami,  of  Chicago,  at  the  preceding  meeting  of  the  American  Pharma- 
ceutical Association,  that  the  price  of  most  synthetic  products 
imported  into  the  United  States  is  very  largely  out  of  proportion  to 
their  cost  of  production  and  real  value. 
No  action,  however,  was  taken  upon  this  subject,  nor  was  the 
perennial  topic  of  specialties  and  nostrums  entered  upon,  likely  as 
being  a  rather  delicate  object  in  a  country  where  this  much-abused 
form  of  medication  has  attained  to  such  a  dominant  position.1 
At  the  second  session  of  the  Congress  the  Hanbury  gold  medal 
for  distinguished  services  in  the  domain  of  pharmacognosy  was 
presented  by  the  President  of  the  Pharmaceutical  Society  of  Great 
Britain,  Mr.  Michael  Carteighe>  of  London,  to  Prof.  John  M.  Maisch, 
who,  on  account  of  serious  illness,  was  unable  to  attend  the  meet- 
ings in  Chicago.  Professor  Remington  responded  in  correspondly 
graceful  words  to  the  generous  presentation,  and  accepted  the 
medal  with  thanks  and  appreciation  to  deliver  the  same  to  the  recip- 
ient. 
At  the  conclusion  of  the  meetings  an  executive  committee  of  the 
1  At  its  stated  meeting  in  the  Profile  House,  July,  1892,  the  American  Phar- 
maceutical Association  had  unequivocally  expressed  its  censure  on  nostrums  by 
the  adoption  of  the  following  resolution  :  "  That  the  American  Pharmaceutical 
Association  desires  to  record  its  appreciation  of  the  ethical  position  taken  by 
the  American  Medical  Association  at  its  last  meeting  in  its  efforts  to  discourage 
the  use  of  secret  remedies  and  the  traffic  in  nostrums." 
