Middletown transcript., 1907-07-06
Written for THE TRANscRIPT]
EXPERIMENTING WITH MEDICINE

This subject, under different headings,
has been brought before the people con-
siderable Of late, especially through the
reading Of the large daily newspapers,
which has created among the people a
great danger in the administration of the
newer remedies.
Prof. Robert Kennedy Duncan of the
University of Kansas has written several
articles OF interest on this topic in which
he states that the one hundred and thirty
thousand physicians in America do not
make the medicine with which they dose
their patients; they prescribe. The thirty
five thousand pharmacists who fill the
million and more prescriptions with
which they are confronted every day do
not make these medicines; they dispense.
These medicines are all either made or
gathered by organizations known as
Manufacturers of Pharmaceutical Pre-
parations;" every ounce of medicine
swallowed by every patient in America
comes, practically, from some such shop.
Now the physician must undergo a
most arduous training before lie can pre-
scribe; the druggist must undergo train
ing almost equally as arduous before he
may dispense; but the manufacture of
of such medicines which the physician
prescribes and the druggist dispenses only
"hand out his sign"
No professional training or educational
qualification is deemed legally necessary
for the manufacture Of drugs. In days
long gone the remedial agents Of the peo-
pie consisted OF a few simples from the
herbs OF the field and when experimental
medicine as carried on by Paracelsus who
stood by the bedside Of his patient, watch
in hand; "Kill or cure" said he, "in five
minutes" Now, all things are changed.
Men has heedfully viewed about them
the infinite number Of things, creatures,
plants and metal and out of them lie is
compounding or extracting bewildered
number Of substances Of alleged phera-
peutic value. What is interesting in the
present day is the extent to which tcien.
tific methods may possibly be applied in
the making Of these substances.
To the writer and reader alike will
there come time, and lucky shall he
be if it comes but once, when from vial
or from a needle will take in them the
issue between life and death. Whether
it be hypnotic, stimulant, anticeptic, anti
toxin or what not. IT it be insincerely
or caFelessIy made the earth may cover q
mistake from which he might be walking
among men in the sunlight.
There are two distinct classes of man.
ufacturers who produce these remedial
agents and these two classes are termed
by Prof. Duncan as Messrs. Cheap and
Deadles and Method and Efficiency.
There might be added to these two classes
Messrs. Quack and Cure-Ail who yearly
sell over one hundred million dollars
worth Of nostrum to tile people. LII
order to save lives the druggist must
pick out from these numerous concerns
the manufacturers who are reliable and
whose preparations have been thorough.
" tested and on the market for years.
thus, the physician il forced to rely upon
the druggist and tile drnggest in partial
sense, upon the manufacture. The lives
OF the people are more in the hands of
the manufacturers than with the druggist
aud ph. sician.-G. FL.