190 
EDITORIAL. 
ing  an  engineer  of  a  Southern  steamer,  who  was  suffering  severely  from 
fever  and  ague.  After  giving  very  powerful  doses  of  quinine,  the  physi- 
cian ordered  podophyllin.  The  prescription  was  taken  to  a  drug  store  in 
the  vicinity  of  the  wharf  at  which  the  steamer  was  lying,  and  the  pro- 
prietor having  no  such  medicine,  supplied  jalap  in  its  stead.  Next  morn- 
ing the  patient  was  raving  mad,  and  had  to  be  transferred  to  the  City 
Hospital,  and  lost  his  berth  on  board  of  the  steamer.  When  the  physician 
called  next  day  at  the  drug  store  to  examine  the  podophyllin,  he  was  so 
astonished  at  its  effects,  he  was  informed  by  the  apothecary  that  his  clerk 
had  not  much  experience,  and  had  used  the  one  medicine  for  the  other  ! 
Numerous  mistakes  occur  in  stores  which  frequently  change  owners. 
Drugs,  in  such  stores,  are  put  into  jars,  bottles,  and  drawers,  with  names 
applicable  to  other  medicines.  This,  too,  is  frequently  done,  as  some  un- 
principled druggists  say,  to  test  the  ability  and  knowledge  of  their  clerks. 
It  is  nothing  uncommon  to  see  a  whole  "  nest  of  drawers1'"  without  a  single 
label  on  them. 
A  narrow  escape  from  culpable  carelessness  of  this  kind  occurred  in  a 
well-frequented  drug  store  which  recently  changed  proprietors.  The 
clerk's  account  of  the  mistake  was  that,  when  busy  in  making  up  a  long 
minim  prescription,  a  girl  entered  the  store  crying,  and  asked  for  three 
cents'  worth  of  a  medicine  very  little  used.  A  jar,  on  which  were  a  gilt 
and  a  paper  label — the  latter  intending  to  intimate  that  it  bore  the  name 
of  the  medicine  it  then  contained,  which  was  that  asked  for — was  hurriedly 
taken  down  for  the  first  time  that  the  clerk  had  been  in  the  store,  and-the 
girl  was  served  out  of  "  her  turn."  Most  providentially,  the  physician 
was  waiting  beside  his  patient,  a  child,  to  administer  the  medicine,  when 
he  discovered  that  a  drug  had  been  sent  which  would  have  destroyed  life, 
with  great  agonies,  in  a  few  minutes.    So  much  for  false  labels  ! 
If  medical  men  were  aware  of  the  absolute  trash  which  is  sold  for  medi- 
cine, they  would  be  careful  in  recommending  particular  stores.  While 
many  physicians  accept  of  25  per  cent,  on  the  amount  of  business  which 
they  send  to  the  stores  of  their  friends,  such  recommendations  will  be 
viewed  with  suspicion.  They  should  abandon  a  percentage  which,  to  say 
the  least  of  it,  is  deserving  of  reprehension. 
What  then,  you  ask,  is  the  remedy  for  this  state  of  things  ?  We  answer 
— first,  in  so  far  as  the  public  is  concerned.  Avoid  all  stores  in  which 
there  is  a  continual  change  of  clerks,  and  especially  if  you  should  be 
satisfied  that  they  are  not  receiving  more  than  $5  a  week.  No  competent 
person,  except  in  extreme  distress,  would  accept  of  such  a  sum.  Avoid 
all  dirty  stores  :  all  stores,  which,  from  a  patch-work  like  appearance — 
jars  of  various  sizes  and  of  different  patterns,  with  dissimilar  labels — give 
evidence  that  they  have  changed  hands  repeatedly  ;  all  stores  where  every- 
thing is  not  carefully  labelled  ;  and  where  there  is  a  total  absence  of  any- 
thing like  system.  If  you  see  one  set  of  tinctures  on  one  side  of  a  store, 
and  another  set  opposite ;  oils  divided  in  the  same  manner;  spirits,  es- 
sences, and  syrups  ranged  together,  and  roots,  flowers  and  seeds  jumbled 
together,  and  other  things  in  similar  confusion  j — though  you  know  noth- 
ing of  medicine,  you  may  be  assured  that  there  is  neither  method  nor 
system  in  such  a  store. 
Secondly,  in  so  far  as  the  trade  is  concerned.  There  are  a  few  well  edu- 
cated and  thoroughly  bred  druggists  in  the  city.  Let  them  unite  and  ap- 
point, for  their  examination,  the  very  best  professors  they  can  obtain  in 
Latin,  Chemistry,  Botany,  and  Materia  Medica.  Let  these  druggist*  sub- 
mit to  a  searching  examination,  and  obtain  a  diploma  of  their  qualifica- 
tions.   Such  diplomas,  by  giving  the  public  confidence  in  their  abilities, 
