PHYSICIANS  AND  PHARMACEUTISTS  AND  THEIR  REATIONS.  25 
seal  or  stamp  on  the  bottles,  counterfeited.  Some  four  weeks  ago,  a  very 
genteel  young  fellow,  in  appearance,  called  in  the  store,  stating  that  he 
was  from  Philadelphia,  and  it  was  his  intention,  whenleaving  Philadelphia, 
to  go  to  Arkansas,  and  that  a  druggist  in  Arkansas  had  written  him  to 
bring  him  20  oz.  of  the  above  article,  (the  article  is  used  largely  there,) 
showing  us  some  vials  of  genuine  at  the  time,  but,  on  his  arriving  here,  he  had 
changed  his  mind,  and  would  not  go,  and  there  being  no  chance  of  sending 
the  article,  he  would  dispose  of  it  at  a  little  less  than  cost ;  he  named  his 
figures,  about  15  per  cent,  less  than  your  price  ;  we  bought  it,  and  on  ex- 
amination of  another  package,  we  found  the  vials  to  contain  what  these  do 
sent  you.  We  had,  however,  sold  a  few  vials,  one  of  which  was  returned, 
saying  it  was  not  good,  and  to  give  him  Rosengarten  &  Son's.  We  make  this 
explanation  that  you  may  caution  your  customers,  if  you  think  best  to  be  on 
the  alert  for  him. 
Yours,  very  respectfully, 
J.  &  C.  Reakirt. 
PHYSICIANS  AND  PHARMACEUTISTS,  AND  THEIR  RELATIONS. 
By  J.  M.  Maisch. 
It  was  about  a  year  ago,  that,  to  a  Philadelphia  Sunday  paper, 
the  question  was  put,  whether  apothecaries  were  to  be  regarded 
as  professional  men  or  as  tradesmen  ?  To  which  that  journal  un- 
hesitatingly replied,  tradesmen.  We  must  confess  that  we  were, 
and  still  are  dissatisfied  with  such  an  answer  ;  opinions  like  this, 
promulgated  by  the  press,  cannot  fail  to  injure  the  science  of 
pharmacy,  at  least  to  do  injustice  to  the  true  and  faithful  pharma- 
ceutist. Druggists,  properly  so  called,  that  is,  dealers  in  drugs, 
certainly  are  tradesmen,  inasmuch  as  their  business  consists 
chiefly  in  buying  and  selling,  some  manufacturing  included.  The 
wholesale  druggist  is  a  merchant,  who  has  to  study  the  influence 
of  political  and  natural  events  on  the  market,  the  facilty  of  pro- 
curing his  merchandise,  the  time  and  manner  to  get  it  off  again ; 
he  has  to  study  the  proper  mode  of  preserving  drugs  in  an 
unaltered  condition,  or  sometimes  to  turn  them  profitably  into 
pharmaceutical  or  technical  preparations ;  in  a  word,  the  whole- 
sale druggist  is  a  merchant,  whose  success,  like  that  of  other 
merchants,  depends  chiefly,  if  not  entirely,  on  the  quantity  and 
quality  of  his  commercial  knowledge  and  virtues. 
Vastly  different  from  him  is  the  apothecary,  who,  of  course,  if 
he  does  not  mean  anything  else  but  a  retail  druggist,  as  he  styles 
