The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1896-10-08
PROTECTION OF PHYSICIANS.
Druggists Requested Not to FIJI Prescrip-
TONS a Second Time.

Druggists Requested Not to FIJI Prescrip-
tons Second Time.
People who are predisposed to FREE
quent attacks of slight indispcsition of
| an ordinary nature, and who have been
in the habit of having their ailment pre-
scribed for by a physician, will look
with askance upon the methods adopted
| by 6 number of physicians of late of IN
| structing the druggist who fills the pre-
scription not to refill the prescription
without an order from the physician,
This arbitrary ruling is in the nature of
mild form of highway robbery when
viewed from the standpoint of the pa
tient, but from the physicians point of
view it is merely Legitimate method of
adding to his professional income.
This rule, which happily has been
adopted by only a small percentage of
reputable physicians in the city, has
many obnoxious features, while it has
few good points to recommend it to
favor.
One of the many objections made to it
is the fact that it works a hardship
upon the poorer class of patients, who
comprise by far the largest proportion
of the clientele of the medical PROBES
sion. A large number of the patients
who call upon the members of the med
ical profession are suffering from only
slight indisposition, which, while it
may be chronic, is, at the same time,
not of serious nature, and one which
prescription calling for simple rem
aHN Wi II OF ont 1,-n
rily relieve the sufferer. In such cases,
where relief is obtained through the
prescription given by the physician, the
patient, upon return of a similar at
tack, would naturally desire to have he
efficacious remedy reflled by the drug
gist without calling upon the physician
again. With this rule adopted by the
physicians, however, he would be I'M
able to obtain the remedy second time
before obtaining prescription from
the physician, and paying another fee,
unless the druggist saw fit to disregard
the request made by the physician.
1t will be seen from this statement
of facts that the real motive for the
| action taken by these physicians in ask
ms vi uS < 1915 llpl W lCllll OllC VI iutll
prescriptions or to give a duplicate to a
customer lies in the fact that il will add
materially to their incomes. Tie phNsi-
clans themselves, however, deny hat
they are actuated by such a mercendry
motive, and claim that their purpose
is to prevent the possibility Ct any of
their patients coming to harm by reason
nf haN-iDCr or y ;ol,
may contain some powerful poison.
Very often, they say. they write pre-
scriptions which contain a poisonous
ingredient which if taken oftener than
prescribed would seriously endanger
the lives of their patients. 1t is to pre-
vent any such contingencies that they
have taken these precautions.
Without the cooperation of the drug
gists, however, these orders of the pny-
sicians not to refill any of their prescrip-
tons would be unsuccessful. While
very small proportion of the druggists
about town express themselves in favor
of obeying the instructions of physi-
clans in this regard by far the majority
of them admit that they disregard them
on every occasion, except in those in
stances in which they know that the
prescriptions asked for by their custom
ers contain a dangerous poison. The
druggists generally argue that pre-
scription which one of their customers
has paid physician to secure belongs
to the customer, and that if he wishes
to secure a duplicate or to have it re-
filled he has a perfect right to do so.
Many of the druggists say that even if
the physicians gave them orders to re-
fuse duplicate prescription they would
ignore it.-St. Louis Republic.