St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1872-02-02
Vermont Pharnaceutists.

About Il year ago we mentioned the
receipt OF Il pamphlet containing the
proceedings of the first annual meeting
of the Vermont Pharmaceutical ASsocia
ton. We have now received the pro
ceedingS of the second meeting. which
was held ut Rutland last October.
There were some papers of interest
read 10y different members OF the ;isSo-
citation, (Which now embraces some forty
apothccalieS from different parts of the
state,) but the choice thing of the meet
ing was an address by the retiring pres
ident, DIR. Case of Brandon. In the inst
part he described the condition of Phar-
macy in Vermont before the Introduction
of railroads:
The ply stefan kept miniature ap"th-
ccary store in his office. on in his kitchen.
from which he supplied his spacious
saddle bags each morning, "r answered
calls for EPSON salts. scnna, essences or
parcgoric from the families around him.
The drug department ot these old
country stores was indeed IL curiosity :
it was the dirtieSt part of the whole eS-
tahlishment its smell Ovcrpowercd that
of tobacco. Goldfish and bad whisky. 1t
was Il heterogeneous array of paper
bundles. deuScly covered with dirt .
mingled with bottles of all forms and
sizes. well coated with IL mixture of the
contents and dirt, having labels with
mis- spelled English. and worse Latin,
and no labels at all. From these were
dispensed picra, oil of spike. laudanum.
paregoric. and sundry other villainous
compounds.
The tinctlreS were never filtered, and
never of any definite strength. a coat
ing from half an inch to an inch thick
ornamented the counter on which every
drug in the establishment WAS repre-
scented. Mortars, graduates. and other
implements, if there We're amy, were
rarely, if ever, washed, and general
air of filth and slovenlincss prevailed the
whole concern. From such. the country
doctors procured their supplies.
! Physicians were narrowed down IL
the use of only Il few articles of the
Materia Medical. and their practice he
came Il routine in the Use of only Il score
or two of drugs, and of the remedial
agents-calomel, opium, tartar emetic.
and the lanrct-formed the four corner
pillars.
| With the old country stores. rhuharl
is rhubarb, no matter how much adult
Grafton and so with everything else.
They buy where they can buy the cheap
est, and, | regret to say, that too many
of our physicians to this day do the
same thing. GOu can sell them THEN
drugs, if You have IL supply of cheap
adulterated goods otherwise they will
go where they can find them.
The prescription business is still III its
infancy, and there are too many of ON
physicians who prefer to carry THEN
score or two of drugs, and dispense them
i'll manner repulSive to delicacy and
refinement, rather than have the range
of the entire Materia Medica. and hay,
their remedies neatly and carefully pre-
pared by an intelligent apothecary.
Patients often protest against pawn.
for prescriptions. thinking they ar,
donbly taxed, and it is often difficult t,
make them see that the arrangement i,
more for their benefit than for that OF
the physician and apothecary.
There is deep evoked prejudice in
community that the profits i'll drugs ar,
enormous. But this is not true, IL large
number of the staple articles are sold
from the shelf of the apothecaly as low
as from the shelf of the grocer OF dry
goods store.
If YOU list ten cents worth of mtdi-
cine, and spend half an hours time, and