The Waco daily examiner. [volume] (Waco, Tex.) 187?-1888, 1884-08-06
CARELESS DRUGS TS
MORE DREADFUL THAN REPORTERS.
Tho Victims of tho Iaatt."ttve Pharms-
cists-A bad Job for Sick Man
When He Falls Into Biun.
dering Hands.


The careless druggist is more to b.
dreaded than an Interviewing newspaper
reporter. Hardly week passes away
from the United States into eternity with
out taking along with it several victims of
the inattsItive pharmacist. The absent.
minded dispenser of mdteriI medicd should
himself be dispensed with, for he is even
more dangerous than the practicing
physician. Between the two, the sick
man is not sure of his fate. The giddy mani
pulator Of salutiterous remedies is even
more dangerous than the cheerful humorist
who fondles the unlosded gun. The pros
pee i've victim of the unlaoded gun has u
chance TO dodge, or he can check the would.
be Bogardus by belaboring him into in-
sensibility with chair. But what protec.
tion has the public against the man who
substitutes arsenic for magnesia, and
writes the victims name in large letters on
the bottle, as if it were tombstone. end
then sends it to him with directions how
| TO take it.
As = general thing the proprietor OF the
drug store does not commit these aSsas'
sinations himself. The man who has his
money invested in drug store knows
that it does not pay in the long run to
furnish cash customers with oxalic acid
instead Of EPSON salts. A few mistakes
of that kind in putting up prescriptions
create . prejudice against the drug store
The survivors prefer to purchas.
even their soda water, tooth brushes,
complex ions and other sedatives, ut some
other therapeutic arena. The live druggist
knows that it is only live people wLo
L.. 1.,- .,,.t
money, hence he does not care to have
them fed on rats bane, even if there is h
profit of 200 per cent. on an average pre-
scription. Nobody ever saw n remains de-
liberately walk into an apothecsry shop,
lay down = dime, and wink solemnly at
the boy who fires Off the soda water
fountain. But it frequently happens that
the druggist hires IA deputy, who, OF
course, having no permanent interest in the
concern, is inclined to be careless.
In our opinion, the medical profession
itself is principally to blame The doc
| tors frequently write a hand that re
sembles IA window shutter struck by light
ming Some doctors think it is Il sign
of genius to write bad hand
possibly because Napoleon, Robes
pierre, and several other great profess
| sional men, " no took wholesale liberty Will
| human life, just as if they were NJ. DIS.
wrote wretched fists. But that is not tn,
worst Of it. The doctors write their pre-
scriptions not only in a bad hand, but il
worse Latin, hence when a sleepy drug
clerk. at a late hour, substitutes som'
deadly night shade, or cramp compelling
hellebore. for soothing condiments, he il
u,.,s,. n
edited the prescription. The doctors con
Time to write their prescriptions in Lati,
because it preserves some Of the mysteries
and illusions that surround the healing art
It awes people to discover that they ar,
afflicted with diseases with long compli
Gated Latin names. Allopathc doctors
however, should not write the prescrip
lions in Latin under any circumstances