Am'^eT''l?92arm•}      Business  Aspects  of  Pharmacy.  7$ 
he  can  withhold  its  sale  in  any  given  location  or  to  any  individual. 
Further,  every  honest  proprietor  and  manufacturer  will  see  that  this 
right  is  respected.  If  this  element  is  not  in  him,  or  selfish  ends 
only  are  perceptible  to  his  defective  mental  vision,  then  the  non- 
secret  preparations  of  the  individual  dealer  will  compel  him  to 
respect  those  rights.  So,  sooner  or  later,  the  question  will  be 
solved. 
As  before  remarked,  this  is  only  one  of  the  many  causes  of  the 
want  of  prosperity  in  our  business.  Specific  medication,  as  intro- 
duced by  the  homoeopathic  representatives  of  the  healing  art,  is 
responsible  for  many  of  our  apparent  ills.  (I  say  apparent,  for  we 
have  lived  long  enough  to  have  learned  that  many  supposed  ills  are 
only  blessings  -  in  disguise.)  We  would  refer  particularly  to  one 
result  of  that  manner  of  prosecuting  the  practice  of  healing 
peculiar  to  this  class. 
Originally  there  were  introduced  pleasant  potions  in  various 
forms,  and  then  came  pellets  or  little  pills  to  suit  the  taste  of  the 
most  fastidious.  This  form  has  captured  the  women  and  children 
en  masse,  and  the  adult  males  are  fast  falling  into  line.  Now  come 
tablets,  and  tablets  have  come  to  stay.  They  are  only  a  return  by  a 
round-about  way  to  the  old  confections  of  a  century  ago,  but  in  an 
infinitely  more  presentable  and  palatable  form.  With  tablets  has 
come  also  the  discomfiture  of  the  apothecary. 
Two  causes  affecting  the  business  of  the  druggists  of  the  day 
have  been  recounted.  The  first,  as  already  remarked,  will  fully  and 
in  good  time  right  itself  from  its  extreme  abuse.  'I he  second  will,, 
to  my  mind,  from  its  medium  of  application — the  physician — open 
up  a  wider  and  deeper  cause  for  complaints  from  the  present-day 
apothecary.  For  the  compact,  pleasant  and  portable  form  of  tablets 
will  make  it  possible  to  readily  place  in  the  patient's  hands  reme- 
dies which  will  replace  at  once  powders  and  pellets ;  and  now  that 
the  day  of  elixirs  is  well  past  its  meridian,  it  will  replace  also,  to  a 
degree,  every  known  form  of  medication. 
The  business  of  the  apothecary  is,  without  doubt,  undergoing  a 
transformation  which,  in  its  ultimate  extent,  is  but  poorly  compre- 
hended at  this  time.  I  fully  believe  that  within  another  quarter  of  a 
century  the  business  of  the  druggist  will  be  as  distinct  from  that  of 
the  true  pharmacist,  as  was  that  of  the  herb  dealer  of  a  half  century 
ago  from  the  old-time  apothecary. 
