204  Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy.  {Km'^\'vmTm' 
where  it  seems  at  all  necessary  the  patients  are  advised  to  consult  a 
physician,  an  attempt  at  diagnosis  not  being  approved.  Moreover, 
the  feeling  seemed  to  be  that  while  druggists  do  not  approve  of  the 
use  of  patent  medicines  they  are  justified  in  selling  them  so  long 
as  physicians  prescribe  them  and  that,  therefore,  the  elimination  of 
this  class  of  remedies  depends  upon  the  physician,  on  the  one  hand, 
and  upon  the  education  of  the  public,  on  the  other. 
Mr.  Blair  quoted  figures  to  show  that  there  has  been  a  marked 
falling  off  in  the  sale  of  patent  medicines  the  last  year  or  so,  but 
stated  that  there  are  indications  that  strong  efforts  will  be  put  forth 
to  revive  the  business  in  this  line. 
Professor  Kraemer  said  that  druggists  should  share  in  the  work 
of  educating  the  public,  and  that  if  they  were  not  in  a  position  to 
refuse  entirely  to  sell  nostrums,  they  should  discourage  their  use  at 
every  opportunity.  He  took  the  position  that  they  should  at  least 
refuse  to  sell  patent  medicines  advertised  as  consumption  remedies, 
and  said  that  he  hoped  the  question  of  the  Government's  granting 
serial  numbers  to  this  class  of  medicines  would  be  taken  up  for 
discussion. 
Mr.  Poley  spoke  of  the  difficulty  of  overcoming  the  influence  of 
those  advertisements  of  patent  medicines  which  appear  in  the  news- 
papers as  reading  matter. 
A  communication  bearing  on  this  subject  was  received  from 
M.  I.  Wilbert,  who  after  referring  to  the  awakening  of  the  public 
in  regard  to  food  preservatives,  writes  as  follows : 
.  "  Pretty  much  the  same  conditions  will  soon  prevail  in  regard 
to  proprietary  medicines  and  nostrums  and  it  would  be  well  for  the 
retail  druggists  of  this  country  to  take  cognizance  of  this  possibility 
and  to  shape  their  business  so  that  when  the  people  of  this  country 
awake  to  a  proper  appreciation  of  the  injustice  that  has  been  done 
them  they  will  not  be  likely  to  place  the  blame  on  the  least  interested 
beneficiary  of  the  sale  of  nostrums.  In  a  lecture  delivered  in  this 
college  recently  (Am.  Jour.  Pharm.,  February,  1909,  p.  56),  Dr. 
H.  W.  Wiley  pointed  out  that  the  American  people,  more  than  any 
other,  were  the  victims  of  the  drug  habit,  and  that  the  direct  cause 
for  this  drug  habit  was  to  be  sought  in  the  false  and  really  misleading 
claims  that  are  made  in  connection  with  nostrums  or  so-called  patent 
medicines.  To  the  thinking  pharmacist  it  must  be  evident  that  once 
the  American  people  realize  that  the  retail  druggists  of  this  country 
have  indiscriminately  sold  them  worthless  or  even  harmful  prepara- 
