PHYSICIANS  AND  PHARMACEUTISTS,  AND  THEIR  RELATIONS.  27 
the  terrestrial  bodies  ;  pharmacy  working  with  such,  could  not  be 
placed  out  of  its  reach,  and  under  the  influence  of  chemistry  it 
was  to  be  built  up  to  a  science  itself. 
Some  have  spent  a  lifetime  faithfully  trying  to  keep  pace  with 
the  rapid  progress  of  pharmacy  and  its  appertaining  sciences, 
and — we  know  such  cases — have  not  been  able  to  reap  the  fruit  of 
a  quarter  century's  labor  and  research  ;  while  others,  who  never 
had  an  idea  of  what  pharmacy  is,  set  up  a  »  drug  shop,"  being 
contented  to  make  money  by  retailing  nostrums,  and  attempting 
even  to  cure,  »  on  the  most  scientific  principles,"  after  having 
read  that  a  proper  dose  of  rhubarb  operates  on  the  bowels,  and 
that  corrosive  sublimate  and  other  mercurials  are  sometimes 
given  in  venereal  diseases,  and  they  do  not  stop  to  reflect  how 
many  lives  are  probably  dependent  daily  on  their  ignorance  or 
unscrupulousness.  Might  it  not  be  well  for  such  persons  to  try, 
by  close  study  and  practical  exercises,  to  gather  at  least  some 
necessary  pharmaceutical  knowledge  ?  And  surely  it  would 
not  be  too  late ;  with  a  firm  determination  a  man  might  accomplish 
it. 
We  have  read  in  a  history  of  the  apothecaries,  by  A.  Phillipe, 
that  about  the  begining  of  the  fifth  century,  the  preparers  of 
medicine  separated  from  the  physicians  as  a  different  class,  but 
were  scorned,  being  regarded  as  higglers.  Could  it  be  otherwise 
now,  in  the  face  of  the  numerous  abuses  perpetrated  on  science 
and  the  public,  if  pharmacy  had  not  obtained  a  higher  degree 
corresponding  with  the  actual  progress  of  the  natural  sciences  ? 
But  how  guard  against,  how  remedy  such  evils  ? 
In  most  parts  of  Europe,  a  strong  restriction  exists,  in  the 
conducting  of  the  apothecary  business,  a  heavy  license  being  im- 
posed on  it,  a  tradition  from  the  middle  ages.  But  what  secures 
there  to  the  pharmaceutist  high  respect  is,  the  necessity  of 
a  professional  education,  of  a  thorough  acquaintance  with  theo- 
retical and  practical  pharmacy,  of  passing  stringent  examinations, 
previous  to  being  recognized  as  such,  and  their  own  zeal  for 
scientific  researches.  Such  is  not  the  case  here.  The  exercise 
of  pharmacy  is  not  restricted  by  law  ;  it  is  legally  considered  a 
trade,  and  it  depends  on  pharmaceutists  themselves,  on  the 
physicians,  and  also  in  a  great  measure  on  the  public  in  general, 
to  make  pharmacy  what  it  might  be ;  on  the  public  and  the 
