Now for the effect. Business conditions have undoubtedly changed. This applies not only to the drug business, but to every line of trades or professions.
Our good old friend, the family doctor, has felt the effects of the surgeon, the specialist, the hospital, the dispensary.
Lawyers, the effect of the title guarantee companies and syndicated law.
The dry goods and notion business has been revolutionized into department stores.
The horse dealers, horseshoers and carriage builders must feel the introduction of the motor vehicle.
Laborers have felt the innovation of the steam shovel, etc.
I could go on almost indefinitely, but these changed conditions are the outcome of science or commercialism, and are inevitable. Now, what is the remedy? I had intended to say nothing on this subject, as it would make quite an interesting paper or be food for animated discussion, but a short consideration of this text is so intimately associated with the subject under discussion that it seems particularly well timed. We are on the eve of still another “crisis”—a “crisis” that partly answers the question, “What is the remedy?” and a close investigation will discover that a pronounced reaction is setting in against many of the products of the laboratory physicians and the faddists who have led their more gullible fellow-practitioners to adopt their experimental novelties and reluctantly have found that practicing medicine without the materia medica is like playing Hamlet without the Melancholy Dane.
The reckless use of biological products, vaccines, etc., is even now being severely handled by both medical and lay journals, and as interesting reading I would call your attention to two articles, one a serious editorial in the Journal of the American Medical Association under date of February 22, 1913, page 602, entitled “Phylacogens,” and the other in a lighter vein, entitled “Medicine,” by Cobb, in the Saturday Evening Post of November 30, 1912.
The man who seeks the little things generally gets the little sought; the man who hunts big game, and is persistent, most often makes a good bag, but the old adage, “Everything comes to him who waits,” may have applied years ago, but many theories and much fact disprove it now. There are still going to be sick people to prescribe for and doctors to do the prescribing. Someone must fill the prescriptions. Who is it to be? It is going to be the man who can shape and mold himself to conditions as they arise. Most doctors are your friends. Even now the ties are becoming more firmly cemented. He is dependent on you to a certain extent. Be fair with him, and he will in most cases reciprocate. And last, but not least, just for a suggestion, lend your aid to some concerted action to control the dispensary evil by having all applicants for treatment first obtain pauper cards from the Police Department or Federal Charities, then see that the dispensing doctor is placed on an equal business footing with you, have him pay his legitimate taxes on his stock, take out a traders’ license, let the drug inspector examine his stock for purity and potency, and finally, see if there is not some way of reaching the gentlemen, for to my mind a physician has no greater right to practice pharmacy without registration than a druggist has to prescribe.