Notes upon new remedies : read before the Kings County Medical Society, August 16th, 1859, and before the Medical Society of the State of New York, February 7, 1860 / by Edward R. Squibb.

  • E. R. Squibb
Date:
1860
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Notes upon new remedies : read before the Kings County Medical Society, August 16th, 1859, and before the Medical Society of the State of New York, February 7, 1860 / by Edward R. Squibb. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    ported, or manufactured extensively, as special articles of trade, by unedu- cated persons. It is probable that this variety of medicine, made easy, is coming into general use, because the convenience of it to the physician and patient has led both to overlook its real chararter and importance, since it is in one prominent respect, at least, upon] the same basis with homoeopathy and other quackeries. If the physician will give to it the thought and consideration that it really deserves, he will hardly fail to arrive at the conclusion that it is emphatically a step in the wrong direction, since it not only removes the responsibility from the dispensing pharmaceutist entirely, but completely dissipates it in the atmosphere of commercial trade and competition, thus removing still other classes of important rem- edies from beyond the reach and control of the physician, and placing in the stead of these, a set of preparations that are beyond the easy reach of any method of testing beyond that of their therapeutic application. This branch of business, fostered, as yet, only to a limited extent by professional and popular favor, has grown into such commercial importance that already four or five large domestic manufactories enter for competition, and advertise their pretentions to excel the articles of foreign origin ; whilst attractive advertisements, setting forth the alleged advantages and standard character of each, are to be seen on the covers of most of the prominent journals. If it was possible to have faith in the truth of all that might be said in advertise- ments, and in the skill and capacity of uneducated workmen, or women and children who are employed upon these chemical and pharmaceutical preparations, then there might be some safety in this system of medical confectionary. But taking the tendency of competition in trade as wo find it, in connection with the condition of the market in regard to medi- cinal substances generally, the only safe rule for the profession to adopt, is that of contracting the compass of responsibility within the narrowest possible limits. Hence the writer would suggest, as a rule for practising physicians, to send their prescriptions only to such pharmaceutists as make their own pills and fluid extracts, with known ai ility, and that they urge upon such pharmaceutists, as a basis for their reliance and support, that all articles to which reliable tests cannot be applied, should be made, and not purchased. In pursuing such a course, and supporting pharmaceutists in charging liberal prices for articles of their own making, physicians would do much to elevate the character of that science and art of pharmacy, upon which they are day by day becoming more dependent, through neglect to cultivate or keep it up as an important branch of knowledge, indispensable to their own profession. By the opposite course of fostering a system of cheap and easy whole- sale medication, they debase the character of pharmacy to the level of common trade, because the pharmaceutist must have less aecess to the interior of his commercial pills and extracts than the bookseller has to the books he sells, while the responsibility for the character or quality of the contents is about the same in both cases. This, too, is apart from any con- sideration of fitting patients' stomachs upon this ready made method applied to medicine It is doubtful whether laws consistent with the spirit of our