Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1897-07-22
dress of the huyer; but sometimes the

reserved to the compromising of pre-
scriptions. The whole trade must suf-
fer for the transgrcssions of these
pseudo-druggists. In temperance vi
entities raids upon drug stores. indis-
criminately executed, are of daily oc-
currence, and as little as a half pint
OF whisky will be contiscated by the
officers as find" Both the pseudo
pharmaceutical saloon keeper and the
professional spotter sent out by tenn
perance leagues are hated and despiscd
beyond measure by the trade.
La recent years enemies have arisen
from unexpected quarters. In the first
place, the growth of the modern depart
ment store with it's cut prices on pat
ent medicines is constantly reducing
the side line business of the druggist.
10 the profession this might appear
as an advantage, but nevertheless it
works great hardship to stores that
have been planned on the old scale.
The patent medicine man is an eye
sore to every druggist. In the first
place, he induces people to buy his
original packages, thus crowding out
the more lucrative prescription trade,
and, secondly, he encourages the de-
partment stores by selling to them at
cut prices. The growth of huge phar-
maceutical Laboratories has also worked
inestimable hardship. Two decades ago
the apothecary bought the crude drug,
crushed, distilled and prepared it all in
his little laboratory back of the pre-
scription counter. To-day the finished
product is furnished in liquid form by
the manufacturer. and all the premium
on pharmaceutical knowledge is taken
away.
But the enemy feared most of all 10
the physician.
"Those doctors are really the most
insolently domineering people conceiv-
able" remarked my friend, the drug
clerk. They ask, or rather demand,
every privilege, and we dare not object.
You see, the influence of most family
physicians is so great that a mere re-
mark will suffice to send their patients
to drug store miles away. A great
many practitioners go SO far as to exact
regular monthly commissions from the
preferred druggist, and often they alb
sorb the bulk Of the profits. Though
the drug journals are always lighting
this practice. 1t is growing from year to
year-even among supposedly respec-
table physicians.
"Still worse are the physicians who
do not prescribe at all. The improve
ments in the manufacture of tablet
triturates, you know, have enabled the
physician to carry the stock of small
drug store in his hand satchel, so that
allopaths, as well as the homeopathic
may diagnose and dispense directly at
the bedside of the patient, while the
druggist has the privilege of furnish
ing the free lunch telephone"
just then an old woman entered the
store. Her little girl, she said, had red
spots all over her face, and couldn't the
druggist give her something against
that? After few cross queries the
clerk disappeared behind the holy Of
holes and returned presently with a
bottle which he wrapped up carefully,
and for which, last but not least, he
collected 40 cents. .
That was clear case of counter
prescribing-the converse to physicians
dispensing. The druggist had no med
ical certificate which entitled him to
diagnose and prescribe for illness, and
so he had surely cheated some practi-
toner out of dollar bill. Both coun-
ter prescribing and satchel dispensing
are source of constant irritation be-
tween the two professions, and at
tempts at more stringent legislation in
either direction are perennial.
From the druggists point of view, a
real square fellow among physicians
will write lots of prescriptions, and will
write them in such way that the drug
gist realizes the greatest possible profit.
Thus West end physician wrote pre-
scription last week for an ounce of aqua
distillate (ordinary distilled water) and
few drops each of tincture of cinna-
mon and asafoetida. Three bottles of
the connection were consumed. The
druggist charged three times 35 cents,
and now recommends that doctor as a
particularly able physician. What
would the patient say if he heard that
he would have been just as we'll off had
he bought nickel's worth of asafoetida
and mixed it in water himself?
The ccnspiracies of the doctors and
druggists go further than this. For ex-
ample, the doctors have been known
to >scribble secret signs on prescrip-
tons, such as charge well for this"
or tell them this must be for a serious
Illness" all to fleece an unwary public.
Another source of endless trouble
between doctor and druggist is the
chirography of the former.
Just look at this prescription" said
my friend, "can you read it?'
Can anyone read it?"
A fac-simile of it is here printed:
Rpu% .N~-~-1d