A  in.  Jour.  Pharm.  ) 
March,  1909.  / 
Correspondence. 
153 
able  in  the  United  States;  but  it  will  be  a  long  time  before  more 
can  be  done. 
The  quack  nostrum  traffic  should  be  stamped  out  for  the  pro- 
tection of  the  public,  and  druggists  who  encourage  it  for  the  sake 
of  the  commission  they  receive  are  not  only  doing  injury  to  their 
fellowmen  but  at  the  same  time  selling  their  birthright  for  a  mess 
of  pottage. 
The  remarkable  spread  of  the  belief  in  drugless  treatment  of 
disease  is  but  the  reaction  against  the  insane  abuse  of  drugs.  The 
cure  for  it  is  real  investigation  and  education.  No  person  should 
be  permitted  to  endanger  health  and  life  by  undertaking  the  diag- 
nosis and  treatment  of  disease  who  does  not  possess  an  adequate 
knowledge  of  the  human  body,  its  organization  and  structure,  and  its 
disorders,  and  of  medical  chemistry.  Such  a  knowledge  cannot  be 
attained  without  systematic  training  and  clinical  study.  If  mental 
healing  cannot  stand  the  test  of  special  knowledge,  truth  and  experi- 
ence, it  must  be  false.    Let  it  be  subjected  to*  that  test. 
There  is  but  little  or  no  danger  of  jealousy  or  contention  between 
physicians  and  pharmacists  of  education  and  high  moral  character. 
The  ignorant,  venal  and  selfish  will  always  make  and  have  trouble. 
It  is  quite  true  that  the  physician  must  in  these  days  carry  certain 
important  remedies  in  his  office  or  his  hand  bag  in  convenient  form 
for  immediate  use  in  order  to<  better  serve  his  patients,  and  the 
pharmacist  cannot  object  to  it  without  discredit  to  himself.  The 
pharmacist  must  be  permitted  to  dispense  many  simple  and  compara- 
tively harmless  remedies  commonly  called  for  by  persons  who  do 
not  need  or  who  think  they  do  not  need  the  advice  of  a  physician. 
A  conscientious,  high-minded  physician  will  neither  knowingly 
patronize  an  incompetent  or  faithless  pharmacist  nor  will  he  under- 
take to  perform  the  duties  of  the  pharmacist  himself.  A  conscien- 
tious high-minded  pharmacist  will  not  perform  any  functions  belong- 
ing to  the  physician. 
By  all  means  let  local  physicians  and  pharmacists  get  together 
and  agree  upon  the  course  each  should  take  and  upon  what  remedies 
the  pharmacists  might  dispense  without  a  physician's  prescription  to 
satisfy  reasonable  demands  which  the  public  will  surely  continue  to 
make  upon  them  and  which  it  is  better  to  satisfy  than  to  refuse.  A 
beginning  might  appropriately  be  made  in  cities  where  local  branches 
of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association  exist. 
Yours  truly, 
Oscar  Oldberg. 
