78 
I)i augural  Address. 
[Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
\   February,  1909. 
the  two  professions  of  medicine  and  pharmacy.  The  physicians 
have  complained  because  of  the  universal  and  very  extensive  dispen- 
sation of  proprietary  remedies  by  the  pharmacists  to  the  laity.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  pharmacists  have  complained  because  of  the 
too  extensive  practice  of  pharmacy  by  the  physicians.  These  two 
evils  complained  of  can  perhaps  never  be  entirely  remedied,  but  by 
mutual  collaboration  a  very  great  improvement  may  be  secured. 
I  am  sure  that  every  member  of  this  Association  realizes  the 
evils  which  come  from  the  drug  habit,  and  perhaps  there  is  no 
country  where  the  drug  habit  is  so  firmly  established  as  in  the 
United  States.  For  instance,  if  you  have  the  slightest  ailment  of 
the  Schneiderian  membrane  every  friend  who  calls  will  know  of 
a  certain  and  speedy  remedy  which  can  be  secured  at  every  drug 
store.  It  is  remarkable  how  each  one  of  these  remedies  is  advocated 
by  the  friend  as  the  only  one  which  is  efficacious.  And  so  it  is  with 
every  other  disease.  No  wonder  then  that  the  pilgrimage  to  the 
patent  medicine  counter  is  so  numerous  and  so  constant.  There 
are  doubtless  simple  remedies  which  may  be  properly  dispensed  to 
those  who  have  slight  colds  or  slight  diseases  of  other  kinds,  with 
benefit  and  propriety,  but  when  the  two  professions  come  together 
the  pharmacist  will  be  supplied  by  the  corresponding  organization 
of  physicians  with  a  list  of  the  remedies  which  should  be  permitted 
to  be  dispensed  for  these  simple  diseases ;  and  the  pharmacist,  if  he 
desires,  may  compound  them  himself.  There  will  be,  at  least,  no 
necessity  of  paying  ten  prices  for  a  simple  remedy  put  up  under  a 
so-called  proprietary  formula.  Both  the  pharmacist  and  the  con- 
sumer will  be  immensely  benefited  by  this  arrangement,  and  the 
physician  will  not  be  injured,  because  the  ailment  is  of  such  a 
character  that  it  would  not  in  any  case  be  carried  to  the  notice  of 
the  physician's  office.  It  seems  to  me  that  in  the  future  the  sale 
of  such  articles  may  be  very  properly  arranged  in  the  manner  I  have 
prescribed,  with  benefit  to  all  parties. 
The  indiscriminate  drugging  of  the  community,  at  their  own 
request,  is  a  practice  which  the  pharmacist  should  frown  upon.  As 
a  rule  there  is  very  little  occasion  for  using  drugs  for  slight  dis- 
turbances of  health.  If  one  is  troubled  with  acidity  of  the  stomach 
it  may  be  remedied  by  changing  the  amount  or  character  of  his  diet. 
If  he  has  a  slight  cold  the  simple  remedy  which  the  physician 
recommends  to  the  druggist  will  be  quite  sufficient  without  paying" 
a  fancy  price  for  remedies  offered  him,  many  of  which  I  doubt  not 
