98 
Pharmaceutical  Meeting. 
(Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
\    February,  1909. 
and  under  the  direction  of  an  experienced  physician,  was  what  was 
demanded  of  the  one  desiring  to  practise  medicine  in  Italy  and  Sicily 
in  the  thirteenth  century.  If  it  came  to  the  knowledge  of  a  physician 
that  any  apothecary  had  for  sale  drugs  of  less  than  normal  strength, 
he  was  bound  under  oath  to  report  such  a  one  to  the  court.  The 
relations  of  the  two  professions  to  each  other  were  clearly  defined. 
The  physician  must  not  enter  into  any  business  relations  with  the 
apothecary  nor  must  he  take  any  of  them  under  his  protection  nor 
incur  any  money  obligation  on  their  regard.  Nor  must  any  licensed 
physician  keep  an  apothecary's  shop  himself.  Pharmacists  were  not 
permitted  to  sell  their  products  without  having  taken  an  oath  that 
all  their  drugs  have  been  prepared  in  the  prescribed  form,  without 
any  fraud.  Then  there  was  also  a  special  section  of  the  law  which 
decreed  that  the  growers  of  plants  meant  for  medicinal  purposes 
should  be  bound  by  a  solemn  oath  to  prepare  their  medicines  con- 
scientiously according  to  the  rules  of  their  art,  and  so  far  as  it  is 
humanly  possible  to  prepare  them  in  the  presence  of  the  inspectors. 
Violations  of  this  law  were  punished  by  the  confiscation  of  their 
movable  goods.  If  the  inspectors,  however,  to  whose  fidelity  to  duty 
the  keeping  of  the  regulations  was  committed,  should  allow  any 
fraud  in  the  matters  that  were  entrusted  to  them,  they  were  to  be 
condemned  to  punishment  by  death. 
Dr.  Cattell  then  described  the  proposed  one  board  medical  bill  for 
Pennsylvania  in  which  the  definition  of  medicine  is  as  follows : 
"  The  practice  of  medicine  within  the  meaning  of  this  Act  is  the 
exercise  or  performance  of  an  act.  by  or  through  the  use  of  any 
thing  or  matter,  or  by  things  done,  given  or  applied,  whether  with 
or  without  the  use  of  drugs  or  medicine,  and  whether  with  or  without 
fee  therefor,  by  a  person  holding  himself  or  herself  out  as  able 
to  treat  disease,  with  a  view  to  relieve,  heal  or  cure,  and  having  for 
its  object  the  prevention,  healing,  remedying,  cure,  or  alleviation 
of  disease."  Such  a  one  board  bill  is  now  in  force  in  all  but  nine 
of  the  states  and  territories  composing  the  United  States  and  it  is 
important  for  the  sake  of  uniformity  and  for  the  protection  of  the 
public  at  large  that  the  class  legislation  of  the  three  board  bill  be 
done  away  with.  In  this  bill  the  greatest  stress  is  laid  upon  the 
moral  character,  a  good  general  education,  and  proper  training  in 
the  fundamentals  of  medicine,  it  being  recognized  that,  as  the  treat- 
ment of  disease  is  dependent  upon  its  diagnosis,  special  attention 
must  be  paid  to  anatomy,  physiology,  pathology,  and  kindred  sub- 
