^iSiSS™'}        Compounding  and  Dispensing.  383 
lack  of  instructions.  It  has  also  been  held  that  if  a  prescription  is 
so  illegibly  written  that,  notwithstanding  ordinary  care,  a  mistake 
is  made  the  druggist  is  not  liable  in  damages. 
It  may  thus  be  seen  how  close  these  matters  come  to  the  indi- 
vidual and  how  much  a  correct  understanding  of  them  serves  to  raise 
the  profession  in  the  esteem  of  the  public.  The  passage  of  such 
laws  as  I  have  referred  to  effects  this  laudable  purpose  and  advances 
the  standing  and  reputation  of  the  profession.  Xo  longer  is  the 
pharmacist  regarded  as  a  charlatan  or  held  in  disrepute  as  one  who 
plies  a  dark  and  mysterious  trade.  The  prevailing  opinion  of  the 
apothecary  a  few  centuries  back  is  well  illustrated  by  a  passage  from 
"  Romeo  and  Juliet  "  : 
"  I  do  remember  an  apothecary. — 
And  hereabout  he  dwells, — which  late  I  noted 
In  tattered  weeds,  with  overwhelming  brows, 
Culling  of  simples  ;  meagre  were  his  looks, 
Sharp  misery  hath  worn  him  to  the  bones : 
And  in  his  needy  shop  a  tortoise  hung, 
An  alligator  stuffed,  and  other  skins 
Of  ill-shaped  fishes ;  and  above  his  shelves 
A  beggarly  account  of  empty  boxes, 
Green  earthen  pots,  bladders  and  musty  seeds, 
Remnants  of  packthread  and  old  cakes  of  roses. 
Were  thinly  scattered  to  make  up  a  show. 
Xoting  this  penury,  to  myself  I  said 
'  And  if  a  man  did  need  a  poison  now. 
Whose  sale  is  present  death  in  Mantua, 
Here  lives  a  caitiff  wretch  would  sell  it  him.'  " 
All  this  is  changed  and  with  the  enactment  of  the  statutes  and 
the  application  of  the  principles  above  referred  to  we  are  twice 
blest,  "  it  blesseth  him  that  gives  and  him  that  takes."  Thev  at 
once  promote  the  dignity  of  the  profession  and  become  a  boon  to 
the  public.  As  has  been  ably  said  and  may  be  appropriately  quoted 
by  me  in  closing, 
Understood  and  appreciated  by  the  public,  protected  and  fos- 
tered by  the  law,  the  calling  of  the  pharmacist  is  rising  to  its  legiti- 
mate place  of  dignity  among  the  learned  professions  of  the  world  : 
and  the  men  who  represent  it  are  now  the  peers  of  any  in  respec- 
tability and  social  standing,  as  they  have  always  been  in  intelligence 
and  learning." 
