Am.  Jour.  Pharm,  1 
March,  1909.  f 
Correspondence. 
155 
Again,  supposing  that  druggists  did  resolve  to  throw  patent 
medicines  out  of  their  business,  where  would  they  draw  the  line? 
Nothing  short  of  a  joint  commission  of  doctors  and  druggists  could 
settle  this  point,  and  they  would  probably  never  come  to  an  agree- 
ment. Some  of  these  very  physicians  who  would  be  the  most  enthu- 
siastic over  Dr.  Wiley's  plan,  would  continue  to  prescribe  some  of 
the  "  patents  "  which  the  druggists  had  been  induced  to  throw  out, 
and  there  would  be  dissatisfaction  all  around. 
In  fact,  I  am  obliged  to  admit  that  Dr.  Wiley's  roseate  plan  is 
in  advance  of  the  times.  Many  physicians  are  not  ready  for  it,  more 
druggists  would  fail  fo  endorse  it,  and  the  great  American  public 
would  have  none  of  it.  All  these  three  classes  of  persons  need  to  be 
educated  up  to  it.  In  the  present  state  of  public  sentiment,  I  do  not 
see  how  it  could  be  worked. 
W.  M.  Searby. 
My  dear  Prof.  Kraemer  : 
Replying  to  your  esteemed  favor  of  Jan.  30th,  would  state  that 
I  had  read  the  abstract  of  lecture  delivered  by  Dr.  Wiley  at  the 
Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy  and  noted  with  considerable  inter- 
est the  suggestions  he  made  about  retail  druggists  handling  domestic 
remedies  compounded  from  prescriptions  furnished  by  the  local 
medical  association. 
The  recommendation  of  patent  or  proprietary  medicines  by 
retail  druggists  is  more  a  force  of  habit  than  otherwise.  If  you 
were  to  ask  one  why  he  recommended  that  particular  remedy  he 
would  probably  reply,  (i  Oh,  I  don't  know  why,  unless  it  was  to  get 
rid  of  some  old  stock."  What  we  are  endeavoring  to  teach  the 
druggist  to  say,  when  a  patron  comes  in  his  store  and  asks  for 
a  specific  patent  medicine  and  also  the  question  "  Is  it  any  good  ?  " 
is,  "  Now,  you  know  just  as  much  about  that  as  we  do.  It  is  exten- 
sively advertised  and  has  a  sale,  but  I  am  entirely  ignorant  of  its 
contents,  etc." 
This  would  be  only  telling  the  absolute  truth  and  would  be  apt 
to  gain  the  confidence  of  his  customer  did  he  not  go  further  and 
say,  "  Here  is  something  I  can  recommend  to  you  which  is  just  as 
good  or  better,"  and  probably  be  just  as  ignorant  of  its  contents  as 
he  was  on  the  first  article. 
This  applies  more  particularly  to  a  later  class  of  remedies  called 
non-secret  preparations.     How  in  the  world  the  average  retail 
