6o 
The  Assay  of  Drugs. 
(  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
\   February,  1909. 
basis  of  a  compact  whereby  in  consideration  of  his  professional 
ability  and  obligation  to  conserve  the  physical  welfare  of  the  public, 
and  to  enable  this  to  be  done  more  effectively,  the  pharmacist  re- 
ceives certain  exclusive  privileges.  Practically  the  provisions  of 
many  of  these  laws,  and  the  activities  of  boards  of  pharmacy  oper- 
ating under  their  authority,  have  been  more  efficient  in  restricting 
the  practice  of  pharmacy  and  thereby  limiting  competition,  than  in 
suppressing  adulteration  and  other  practices  detrimental  to  the  public 
health.  Sometimes  a  disposition  has  been  disclosed  to  regard 
pharmacy  laws  as  primarily  for  the  benefit  of  pharmacists  rather 
than  that  of  the  public.  On  the  other  hand  the  efforts  of  the  ethical 
element  in  pharmacy  have  powerfully  promoted  the  pure  drug 
legislation  of  recent  years,  though  as  an  expression  of  public  senti- 
ment it  represents  a  loss  of  prestige  by  the  boards  of  pharmacy. 
The  prevalent  tendency  has  been  to  withdraw  from  them  and  entrust 
to  other  officials  the  authority  and  duty  of  enforcing  the  new  laws. 
These  laws  generally  provide  a  system  of  guarantees  whereby 
the  retailer  can  transfer  to  his  source  of  supply  the  responsibility 
for  drugs  sold  in  original  packages,  the  liability  otherwise  being  his 
own,  and  his  willingness  or  unwillingness  to  assume  the  responsibil- 
ity for  what  he  sells  may  be  expected  to  have  a  corresponding  effect 
upon  his  professional  standing.  He  may  reduce  his  liability  by 
selling  a  minimum  of  his  own  preparations,  thus  tending  to  become 
a  mere  drug  distributer;  or  he" may  attack  the  problem  of  supplying 
a  creditable  proportion  of  legal  medicaments  on  his  own  responsi- 
bility. A  rigid  enforcement  of  the  requirements  of  these  laws  would 
oblige  pharmacists,  by  the  application  of  Pharmacopceial  and  other 
tests,  to  assure  themselves  of  the  legality  of  many  preparations  for 
which  they  are  necessarily  responsible.  Some  have  had  no  train- 
ing in  this  branch,  and  for  others  it  has  had,  since  their  college  days, 
but  an  academic  interest.  If  a  demand  arises,  the  colleges  will  no 
doubt  provide  suitable  courses  in  Pharmacopceial  technic,  following 
the  example  of  the  Pharmaceutical  Division  of  the  Zurich  Poly- 
technic, Switzerland,  which  gives  ten-day  courses  of  instruction  and 
laboratory  practice  based  on  the  new  Swiss  Pharmacopoeia. 
The  first  practical  application  of  drug  assaying  was  probably  made 
to  afford  a  rational  basis  of  valuation  in  the  purchase  of  opium  and 
cinchona  for  the  manufacture  of  alkaloids.  Thus  when  the  medical 
profession  urged  the  desirability  of  more  reliable  and  uniform  prod- 
ucts than  the  existing  system  of  supplying  medicaments  afforded, 
