Pharmacist

“ But there are innumerable small accidents, and little ailments to which humanity is liable, which quite legitimately come within the province of pharmacy to treat, and the pharmacist, if he is wise, is a much safer man to treat these than the clergy and the laity, who are ever ready to prescribe for each other upon any and all occasions. The best and wisest exponents of medicine admit this right on the part of pharmacy, and welcome the service which is rendered by it to sufferers. ”

“ In England the task of elaborating 11 new Pharmacopoeia is entrusted to a body of a purely medical character, and legally the pharmacist has not, as in other countries, a voice in the matter, notwithstanding the fact that, although the medical practitioner is naturally the best judge of the drug or preparations that will afford the best therapeutic result, he is not so competent as the pharmacist to say how that preparation can be produced in the most effective and satisfactory manner, nor how the purity of drugs can be tested. ”

“ When the pharmacist puts up an ordinary, nonproprietary prescription, the patient gets no clue from the package as to the nature of the prescription employed. But when an original bottle of Neurosine is dispensed, even though the pharmacist puts his own prescription label on it, the patient sees the difference at once and knows just why the usual prescription bottle was not employed. He also knows that he can get the medicine with its original wrapper or label by merely showing the bottle to the druggist, for the words “Neurosine” and “Dios Chemical Co.” are blown in the glass. ”

“ THE DRUG-TAKING PHYSICIAN, NURSE, AND PHARMACIST
Among the widely varying classes of drug-users, three in particular are a source of the [Pg 30] gravest danger: the drug-taking physician, nurse, and pharmacist. To realize this, one has merely to recall that the drug-taker is a confirmed evader of responsibility; and the physician, of all men, is in a responsible position. He must not forget or break his appointments; he must realize the effects of the medicines he is prescribing; if a surgeon, his work must never be below its best. ”

“ The mistake (a very common one) which pharmacy is making, is that it wants the reward before it has made the effort and suitably equipped itself for the service. I exhort the pharmacist of the future to be unremitting [53] in his efforts to raise himself and his calling to a professional status, and then I predict for him that in the natural course the dispensing of medicines will come to him. ”

“ Their places of business appear to be news-agencies, refreshment parlors, stationery stores—the drugs are “on the side,” or rather in the rear. Sometimes, I am told, the proprietors of these places know nothing at all about pharmacy, but employ a prescription clerk who is a capable pharmacist. Here the druggist has stepped down from his former position as the manager [pg 231] of a business and has become a servant. All of which looks to me as if the pharmacist himself might be beginning to accept the valuation that some people are putting upon his services to the community. ”

“ William Kirkby's 'Practical Prescribing and Dispensing.' The book is written by a pharmacist expressly for medical students, and the author has been most happy in conceiving its scope and arrangement."—British Medical Journal.
"The work appears to be peculiarly free from blemishes and particularly full in practical detail. It is manifestly the work of one who is a skilled chemist, and an expert pharmacist, and who knows not only the requirements of the modern student but the best way in which his needs may be met."—Medical Press. ”

“ It will bean almost indispensable companion to the practicing Pharmacist and a very useful reference-book to the [17] Physician. It contains a brief but thorough explanation of all terms and processes used in practical pharmacy, an abstract of all that is essential to be known of each officinal drug, its preparations and therapeutic action, with doses: in Chemistry and Botany, much that is useful to the Physician and Pharmacist ”

“ Every pharmacist has observed the greatly increased development of the commercial side of the drug business as compared with its scientific side, which rather seems to be accorded a secondary place in the conduct of its affairs, regardless of the fact that this feature is the one that gives it character, and the only one that distinguishes it from ordinary merchandising. ”

“ The assertion that an ex­tem­por­aneous compound prescription even if identical in composition with the Chichester pill is often inert, is absurd and a reprehensible attack by suggestion of the ideal that the physician shall write his prescription to meet the individual needs of his patient and that the pharmacist shall compound the prescriptions of the physician as they are required. ”

“ Theoretically it is undoubtedly better that dispensing shall be done by the pharmacist, and prescribing by the medical man, but when we pharmacists claim this as a right, and accuse medicine of unjustly usurping our functions, it is well for us to remind ourselves that medical men, although they may not now as frequently as of old take the degree of L. S. A., are the direct and legitimate successors of the old apothecary and that the dispensing of medicine was their legitimate function. ”

“ Too much care cannot be exercised in this direction, for the manufacturer’s guarantee may in some instances prove to be only a label.
To do work of this kind means that the pharmacist shall be a master of the Pharmacopœia, that he shall be able to identify any substance in the Pharmacopœia, carry out any of the tests, and make 105any of the preparations in the Pharmacopœia and National Formulary, processes for which are given. The least, then, that the colleges of pharmacy can do is to prepare their students to employ the Pharmacopœia and the National Formulary as working guides. ”

“ If one specimen fails to give satisfaction it ought to be discarded and another tried. The pharmacist must be importuned to make special efforts to give us an article that is not inert, but contains all the activity that belongs to the drug. ”

“ It has been most gratifying to the laboratory that The Journal receives an increasing number of inquiries both as regards the chemical and pharmaceutical questions involved in the writing of prescriptions and as regards the composition of secret and semisecret proprietaries (often because they are prescribed by the inquirer’s colleague) and “patent medicines” (which are taken by his patient) . The laboratory has tried its best to answer the many inquiries received. Many of the questions which come in can be answered by a pharmacist or chemist without hesitation. ”

“ The laboratory attempts to be to the members of the American Medical Association what the prescription pharmacist is, or should be, to the prescribing physician—a storehouse of chemical and pharmaceutical information. In the belief that an insufficient familiarity with the chemistry and pharmacy of drugs constitutes the chief reason for the extensive use of unscientific, worthless or fraudulent proprietary remedies, this service is rendered by the laboratory as a contribution to the cause of rational therapy. ”

“ COLLEGE COURSES. Having once eliminated the unfit, the next highest duty of the colleges of pharmacy is to qualify their students for the work that they may be called upon to do. This may seem like a very trite saying to some of you, and yet I feel warranted in its utterance. We have reached a crisis in pharmaceutical history, and if the pharmacist is to continue a separate and independent existence it must be on the basis of his scientific attainments. ”

“ Physicians have come to the realization that drugs are as a two-edged sword—under proper conditions, striking against the disease; otherwise, against the patient’s health. The first condition for their proper use is adequate knowledge of their composition and purity; of their actions and malefactions; their field and limitations. Slowly and painstakingly—sometimes painfully—this scientific knowledge has been gathered, is still being gathered, by chemists and pharmacists, pharmacologists and clinicians, with increasing thoroughness, care and discrimination. ”

“ Through laboratory research work, modern medical science has progressed to such an extent that in some diseases the form of medication has changed entirely, while in others medication is reduced to a minimum. Chemical combinations, synthetics, biological products, vaccines, etc., have all in a natural sequence deprived the pharmacist of many prescriptions. ”

“ As it is impossible for us to ascertain in each instance the identity of a Physician who might wish to make use of this department, we must insist (for the proper protection of the Profession against the unauthorized purchase of poisons, etc.; as well as in due recognition, by us, of the established usage in the traffic with medicines and drugs) that every such order be transmitted through an established Pharmacist; and pharmacists, when telegraphing orders to us, should always mention their jobber to whom the article is to be charged. ”

“ The honesty of each being presupposed, such a charge as the substitution of an inferior article for some ingredient in a prescription, or the false insinuation that a mistake in the medicine is due to the compounder’s carelessness need not be raised. Let us consider the grievances of each against the other.
The physician complains that the apothecary exceeds his function by prescribing for the sick. A person applies to the pharmacist for a remedy for a specified disease. ”

“ In addition, such physicians have been accepting the statements of laymen, not only as to the composition of the nostrums, but as to their use. In every state the practice of pharmacy is regulated by law: before assuming the responsibility of compounding medicines a druggist must have studied and passed an examination in pharmacy. Public safety demands and the law requires it. There are some doctors, however, who will allow laymen who are not chemists, pharmacists or physicians to formulate and compound a prescription and tell them what it is good for and how to use it. ”

“ Oefele states of pharmacy before the time of Hippocrates, that although the practice of medicine was not separated from pharmacy among the Greeks and Romans, there was such a separation among the ancient Egyptians, from whom the distinction was handed down to the Copts, and by them to the Arabians; and, in fact, that the term pharmacist is probably of Egyptian origin, being derived from Ph-ar-maki, which signifies the preparation of medicine from drugs. ”

“ No one connected with the company is a regularly licensed pharmacist or graduate chemist.
Of the six physicians located in Winchester, three (50 per cent.) are engaged in the dropsical cure business. Poor Winchester! Aside from their connection with these two nostrums, these physicians may be estimable and worthy citizens, but where, pray, did they find the extensive clinical facilities and pharmaceutical knowledge necessary for their wonderful and epoch-making discovery? ”

“ Flem And, I tell all the patients who come to me about you, praise you to the skies, and belittle or disparage all other doctors without exception.
Peacock We do everything that a doctor and a pharmacist can do for each other. We work in perfect harmony. ”

“ As a rule, the former class of preparations has but an ephemeral popularity, and, as for the latter, there cannot often be need of specifying the goods of a particular manufacturer; 178for a worldly-wise, not to say honorable, pharmacist certainly may be trusted to furnish only fine articles, that he may keep the favor of those upon whose good-will his legitimate business depends. If a special brand is deemed necessary by the doctor, he can request a convenient apothecary to procure a quantity, and then can send to his shop the patients who require this article. ”

“ Requests to dispense incompatible or over-dosage prescriptions and prescriptions may be dispensed only after the prescribing physician makes corrections or re-signs the order.
⁠Drug distributors shall indicate the origin of the Chinese medicinal materials to be sold.
⁠Legally qualified pharmacists or other pharmaceutical professionals shall be responsible for the drug management, prescription examination and dispensing, and guidance of rational use of drugs. ”

“ There is one great advantage in specifying U. S. P. drugs and preparations: Physicians who do so invoke legal standards of purity and identity. The only way to be sure of obtaining substances of therapeutic efficiency, however, is to exercise discrimination. The Pharmacopeia is no guide. Being prepared mainly by pharmacists to meet the needs of pharmacists, the Pharmacopeia of course contains much matter of little interest to physicians and entirely foreign to scientific medicine.— (Editorial from The Journal A. M. A., Sept. 2, 1916.) ”

“ The physician should save this privilege for use when prescribing some product that differs materially in its various forms on the market, as for example in the case of certain fluidextracts.
Physicians will doubtless find that the above comments will interest their local pharmacists. It is of mutual value for physicians to talk these matters over with their pharmacists.​— (From The Journal A. M. A., Oct. 5, 1912) .
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