156 
Correspondence. 
f  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
'(      March,  1909. 
druggist  can  be  gulled  by  the  sophistry  of  these  preparations  is 
beyond  me.  In  fact  his  only  argument  is  that  he  can  buy  them 
cheaper  than  ordinary  proprietaries  and  therefore  makes  more  profit. 
It  has  often  been  said  that  the  American  people  like  to  be  gulled. 
It  does  seem  so. 
The  proprietors  of  a  patent  medicine  put  out  a  flaming  adver- 
tisement covering  all  the  ills  that  flesh  is  heir  to  or  ever  expects  to 
be.  They  are  generally  written  in  such  a  measure  that  the  average 
person  is  led  to  believe  that  he  or  she  has  just  that  disease.  I  regret 
to  say  that  some  retail  druggists  apparently  believe  the  same  thing, 
especially  if  there  is  a  good  margin  of  profit  upon  the  medicine  in 
question. 
Now,  as  to  the  suggestion  of  Dr.  Wiley,  I  think  it  would  be  far 
more  practicable  and  more  apt  to  meet  with  the  approval  of  the 
druggists  did  we  reverse  the  order  of  doing.  For  instance,  every 
retailer  is  interested  in  getting  up  for  ready  sale  those  medicines 
which  are  the  best  for  the  purposes  indicated  and  then  again  you 
must  take  into  consideration  the  fact  that  each  one  thinks  he  has 
the  best,  etc. 
Now,  it  follows  that  if  the  local  medical  association  were  to 
write  general  prescriptions  for  this  class  of  remedies,  each  druggist 
would  have  similar  preparations,  whereas  could  there  be  an  agree- 
ment whereby  the  druggist  could  submit  his  preparation  and  for- 
mula to  the  local  medical  association  for  censorship  and  approval, 
then  you  would  have  something  tangible. 
For  instance,  the  Philadelphia  County  Medical  Society  could  have 
a  committee  similar  to  the  Council  of  Pharmacv  and  Chemistry  of 
the  American  Medical  Association  to  whom,  at  stated  periods,  these 
formulas  could  be  submitted  and  if  they  were  approved  could  be 
dispensed,  and  how  easy  and  ethical  it  would  be  for  the  druggist  to 
say,  "  Here  is  a  remedy  for  a  cough  that  has  been  approved  by  the 
County  Medical  Association  and  I  can  truthfully  recommend  it." 
If  this  plan  could  be  made  possible  and  practical,  I  can  see  the 
whole  group  of  popular  headache  remedies  go  flying  in  the  air.  In 
mv  belief  the  time  is  coming  when  the  physician  and  pharmacist  are 
going  to  get  together  upon  a  common  basis  and  when  it  does  come 
you  will  see  pharmacy  restored  to  where  it  properly  belongs. 
T.  H.  Potts. 
